A Pioneer Story: The Daily Life of a Canadian Fmaily in 1840

Barbara Robertson is the author of Wilfrid Laurier: The Great
Conciliator and co-author of The Well-Filled Cupboard.

This collection of stories, information, and activities centres on the
Roberston family, pioneers in the Ontario of 1840. There are nine of
them, ranging from grandmother to infant, but particular attention is
paid to the experience and perceptions of 10-year-old Sarah and her
brother Willy, who is a year younger. The stories deal primarily with
how the family survived from day to day and season to season, but also
touch upon whom they saw—not simply neighbors but various wanderers,
from the pedlar to the itinerant preacher—and what they
celebrated—Hogmanay as well as Christmas. The dangers of pioneer life
are dealt with in a firm, though not a harrowing, way, as in the
discussion of the hazards of fire and the description of Sarah’s
encounter with a lynx.

The activities are derived from those of pioneer life, and modified so
as to be feasible today. There is a nice little experiment with maple
sap, directions on how to make butter, dye from onion skins, and much
else. Also included is information about, for example, the use of
rollers, levers, runners, and ramps—practical physics not dealt with
in schools now, but useful knowledge all the same.

There are a few lapses in diction—“yeah, well ...” and “So who
needs school” do not sound like the idiom of 1840—but this is a
minor problem. Altogether, the book is a deeply engaging look at the
not-so-distant pioneering past—social studies without tears. It should
appeal to the do-it-yourself kind of child—the sort who used to
delight in The Swiss Family Robinson. Highly recommended.