Under Emily's Sky

Agnes C. Farrell is an elementary-school teacher in Richmond, B.C.

Eleven-year-old Lee is shattered when her alcoholic father decides to
leave for good. Even though he has lied to her and broken promises, she
blames her mother for not making him stop drinking. She resolves that
she will run away to live in the old shacks in the hills and that she
will never speak to her mother again.

The day after her father leaves she is rude to her mother, her best
friend, and her teacher. It isn't until art class, when the teacher
introduces the paintings of Emily Carr, that she begins to relax. Lee
loves to paint and uses her whole body to portray trees in the manner of
Emily Carr.

Lee decides to postpone her running away until after the weekend,
because she and her mother are going camping with her cousin and her
uncle. On this trip, she falls and strikes her head. While unconscious,
she travels back in time to 1936. There she meets Emily Carr, her
monkey, and her dogs. She also meets a family who were forced to leave
their farm in Saskatchewan because of the drought and the locusts, and
who are now squatting on Vancouver Island and illegally cutting trees to
make a living. When Lee regains consciousness, she realizes that her
problems are insignificant compared with those of people who lived
during the Depression.

This book provides factual details about Emily Carr and the trials of
the Depression. There is also a teacher’s guide available.
Recommended.