Catch Me Once, Catch Me Twice

Sheree Haughian is a teacher-librarian in Orangeville, Ontario.

It is 1942, and 12-year-old Evelyn McCallum’s father has been posted
to the war front in North Africa. She is obliged to move from her
outport Newfoundland home to her grandparents’ house in St. John’s.
But her family offers little support in this period of change: her
mother is in the late stages of a difficult pregnancy; her grandmother
is a starchy, lace-curtain matriarch; and her grandfather is a doctor
busy in his profession. Socially acceptable school chums are about as
sensitive as the latest lipstick shade. Ev finds solace in the society
of saltier Newfoundland characters—a seasoned midwife, her crippled
grandson, and a boatbuilder said to be fitted with second sight. One of
her ramblings with these colorful new companions brings Ev into contact
with one of the fairy folk of traditional lore, an encounter that grants
maturity to her wishes and judgment when her situation seems most
desolate.

Janet McNaughton’s novel is a worthy addition to the growing body of
young-adult fiction about the realities of wartime Canada (or, in this
case, what was soon to become Canada). Historical details, such as the
state of Newfoundland midwifery at the time and the nightly wartime
blackouts in St. John’s, ring true enough, but this story is as
memorable for its hint of the uncanny. Challenged by change, Ev flirts
with becoming a changeling. Catch Me Once, Catch Me Twice is a seamless
weave of the natural with the supernatural. Highly recommended.