Soldier Boys

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

The 1885 Riel Rebellion, particularly the Battle of Fish Creek, serves
as the period focus for this fine piece of Canadian historical fiction.
Richards’s two central juvenile characters, both fictitious, are on
opposing sides but have many commonalities, one being their fathers’
opposition to their involvement in armed conflict. Tom Kerslake, 13, is
a bugler in the Winnipeg Rifles, a militia unit called into active
service because of the insurrection in Saskatchewan. Forbidden to go
with the Rifles by his U.S. Civil War veteran father, Tom disobeys by
stowing away on the troop train. Luc Goyette, 14, is a Métis whose
farmer father sides with the Catholic Church against Riel and refuses to
fight against Canada. Though sympathetic to the Métis cause, Luc
initially respects his father’s wishes, but Riel’s forces blackmail
the English-speaking Luc into becoming a spy by threatening to arrest
his father for treason. The two boys’ paths cross briefly when Luc is
captured at Fish Creek and Tom prevents him from being bayoneted by a
vengeful soldier.

The book concludes with Luc’s escape from his captors and Tom’s
continuing march toward Batoche. Within chapters, the two juveniles
alternate in narrating the essentially chronological plot while
gradually revealing how war’s realities temper their earlier visions
of its glory. Because Tom’s connection to the military force
constrains his movements, Luc’s story seems more exciting as he ranges
across the prairies and even experiences a small romance. Richards’s
first novel should find a ready audience among middle-schoolers.
Recommended.