Home Child

Description

128 pages
$7.95
ISBN 1-896184-18-9
DDC jC813'.54

Publisher

Year

1996

Contributor

Brenda Baltensperger is a playwright, a director of children’s
theatre, an editor of children’s fiction, and the author of Fractured
Fairy-tales.

Review

During the late 1800s and well into the Depression years, 100,000
children, mostly orphans, were shipped from Britain to Canada as cheap
farm labor. This story is about one such child, 12-year-old Arthur, who
is worked to the point of exhaustion at the Wilson farm. Although Arthur
finds an ally in Grandma Wilson, he is treated as an inferior being,
both on the farm and at school. When certain items disappear from the
farmhouse, Arthur is accused of theft and threatened with deportation. A
sudden turn of events and a dramatic rescue redeem Arthur in the eyes of
the Wilsons and the community, and he is finally accepted as a member of
the family.

Adults and children alike will be moved by this poignant and simply
told story, which is based on real-life experiences. Highly recommended.

Citation

Haworth-Attard, Barbara., “Home Child,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed May 19, 2025, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/19745.