Bryna Means Courage

Marcia Sweet, formerly head of the Douglas Library’s
Information/Reference Unit at Queen’s University, is currently an
Ottawa-based information consultant.

The message of this small, well-written book is that courage isn’t
something that one summons up every once in a while, but rather a trait
that must be called upon every day. Athletic and fearless Bryna is proud
of her physical courage. It helps her to deal with outsiders’
reactions to her unusual family situation (she is being reared by her
father, a rough but domestic working man who doesn’t insist that she
go to school). Byrna’s dad devotes years to her, and to the memory of
her mother, who valued courage. On one of their cross-country moves,
Bryna finds a wrecked Harley-Davidson and sets out to rebuild it. When
her father remarries, Bryna treats her stepmother badly, and begins
planning her departure from her dad’s new life. Bryna Means Courage
deftly shows the heroine’s gradual maturing as she resolves her
differences with her stepmother and makes her departure. The book,
nominated for a 1993 Governor General’s Award, is about love and the
power one gets from confronting one’s problems. Recommended.