Mavis and Merna

Sylvia Pantaleo is an associate professor of education, specializing in
children’s literature, at the University of Victoria. She is the
co-author of Learning with Literature in the Canadian Elementary
Classroom.

Gully’s, the busiest store in Fortune’s Cove, offers its customers a
diverse array of commodities including bicycles, underwear, wicker,
wool, candy, cereal, garden gnomes, and fishing gear. Mavis, a young
resident of the small town, loves the smells, sounds, and sights of
Gully’s and dreams of owning the wonderful things in the store. When
Joe Gully, the store owner, dies suddenly of a heart attack, people
speculate that his wife, Merna, will be financially comfortable and that
prices will drop at the store. However, Gully’s does not reopen, and
when Mavis sneaks out of the house to spy on Merna counting her reputed
millions, the girl discovers a lonely woman playing solitaire. From that
night forward, Mavis and Merna develop an enduring friendship. The two
companions play cards, cut the lawn, fish, dig for clams at the beach,
and travel down roads in Mr. Gully’s newly painted fiery red Impala.
Three decades pass and Mavis marries a lobster fisherman; together she
and her husband work on their boat, Gully’s Float, a wedding present
from Merna. One afternoon Mavis decides that it is time to reopen the
store. She and Merna clean up the building and week later, Gully’s
opens with the original 1965 price tags on the merchandise.

The intergenerational friendship between the two characters is free
from sentimentality, and Wallace adds a wry sense of humour to the
touching story. The watercolour illustrations evoke the maritime
setting. Note the significance of the endpapers and the illustrations on
the title page and the final page of the book. Recommended.