Garth and the Mermaid

Kelly L. Green is co-author of The Ethical Shopper’s Guide to Canadian
Supermarket Products and associate editor of the Canadian Book Review
Annual.

This juvenile novel is another spellbinding page-turner from Barbara
Smucker, who gave us The Incredible Jumbo. Garth and the Mermaid, with
its rich historical detail and rapidly moving story, is this
reviewer’s personal favorite of Smucker’s work so far.

Garth is a young boy whose English parents came to Canada when he was
small. His father, a stone sculptor who worked restoring cathedral
masonry, died when he was two years old, and his mother is about to
remarry. During a time when Garth’s class at school is studying life
in the Middle Ages, Garth is hit by a car one evening as he tries to
keep a classmate from being killed. When Garth regains consciousness, he
is no longer a 20th-century Canadian boy, but a young peasant on a
medieval estate in East Anglia, living with his mother and stepfather.
The rest of the book follows Garth the peasant’s struggle to become a
free man, a mason who helps build a cathedral.

Smucker cleverly utilizes the names of the 20th-century characters in
her fictional 14th-century village. Medieval Garth’s stepfather,
Goderic, is akin to Hawk Goderich, the fiancé of modern Garth’s
mother. The evil steward on the medieval estate, Hawkin, represents
modern Garth’s ambivalent feelings toward his future stepfather.
Meanwhile both Garths have a best friend named Ed (or Edmund), and the
Mermaid is a young girl named Mary, who shows up in both places as well.
The author’s time-travel device reminds the reader of L’Engle’s
futuristic tale, A Wrinkle in Time, and is equally effective.

Smucker’s use of historical detail is comprehensive and compelling.
She has worked hard to make the medieval dialogue readable, and yet to
avoid anachronism. My only criticism of this novel is that the
20th-century characters are one-dimensional and somewhat poorly drawn.
The modern story gets short shrift, in fact, and this weakens the book
as a whole. Nevertheless, 8- to 12-year-olds will love this tale, which
truly makes history come alive. Highly recommended.