The Ocean Between

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.

Though set in 1874-75, this work of historical fiction treats two
seemingly timeless themes—religious intolerance and the question of
women’s role in society. For the “crime” of being Huguenots
(Protestants) in Catholic France, the de Montigny family (consisting of
Isabelle, 15, her older brother Edmond, and their parents) must flee to
Canada or risk having Monsieur de Montigny, an industrialist, again
sentenced to death on trumped-up treason charges. Told from Isabelle’s
perspective, the episodic plot chronicles the family’s changing
lifestyle over the next 10 months as they trade their servant-filled
estate in France for a crude two-room cabin near Montreal. With mixed
emotions, Isabelle also leaves behind Antoine Beauchamp, a 25-year-old
army officer, who was about to ask her father’s permission to marry
her. While Isabelle loves Antoine, she fears that once she is his wife
he will forbid her to pursue her plans to become a nurse, an occupation
Antoine sees as being “quite beneath [her] social position.” With
“the ocean between” them, Isabelle can remain in love with Antoine
while taking steps that move her closer to her nursing goal. When
Antoine suddenly arrives in Canada at Christmas, Isabelle must choose
between marriage and a career, and also between Antoine and Gerard
Fortier, a local lad in whom Isabelle has been developing a romantic
interest.

Potts’s 18 chapter-introducing pen-and-ink illustrations both
reinforce the work’s historical setting and reflect the chapters’
varying moods. This gentle romance will appeal to middle-school girls in
particular. Recommended.