His Banner Over Me

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, Japan Foundation Fellow 1991-92, and the author of
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home and As Though Life Mattered:
Leo Kennedy’s Story.

In this fictional re-creation of her mother’s life as the child of a
missionary in Taiwan in the early decades of this century, Jean Little
has crafted a tale of families and of strong individuals that will
appeal to both children and young adults.

The story begins in Taiwan at the onset of the Japanese occupation.
Four-year-old Flora Gauld is a quiet child, but fiery when challenged.
After the birth of a sixth child, Flora’s mother takes her four
youngest children back to southwestern Ontario to live with her
relatives. All but the youngest stay in Canada and grow up there. The
settings of Taiwan, Kippen, and Regina are vividly realized, as are the
personalities of the grandmothers, aunts, and uncles. The beliefs bred
in the bone of these people are conveyed with drama, humor, and a lack
of sentimentality. Flora hates being paraded in Taiwanese dress at
meetings to raise money for “the heathen,” and is glad to hear
Father call the Taiwanese “good people.”

When Flora enters medical school at age 16, the death of an
impoverished friend makes her question her vocation. But she survives
the testing. Little conveys the reality of faith and loving service
partly through the traditional hymns and carols that stand as epigraphs
for the chapters, hymns like Blake’s “Jerusalem” (“Bring me my
bow of burning gold”), Bunyan’s “To Be a Pilgrim,” and Henry
Francis Lyte’s “Abide with Me.” Young Flora’s love for such
classics as Black Beauty and The Secret Garden suggests the source of
Little’s own facility with language and storytelling.

With its themes of quiet heroism and love, His Banner Over Me is a
classic to rival, and surpass, Louisa May Alcott’s much-loved Little
Women. Highly recommended.