Francie and the Basket Women

Sheila Martindale is poetry editor of Canadian Author and Bookman and
the author of No Greater Love.

This delightful picture book is set in the 1920s or 1930s. Francie, who
is nine, has a bad toothache and must be taken by horse and buggy and
then by train to where there is a dentist. She dreads the thought and
begs not to have to go, but her parents are firm. Once there, she is
even more terrified when a young patient bursts into the waiting room
and out the door, yelling in pain, with his procedure only half done.
This panics Francie, who also runs out in terror without any idea of
where she is going. She finally finds herself on a train, where, to her
horror, she sees a group of “basket women” about whom she has heard
terrible stories. Seeing that she is alone, the women approach her, and
she backs away. Eventually they are able to talk to her, and even help
her with the toothache because one of them is a medicine woman. Francie
finds out that they are kind and gentle, nothing like the ogres in the
rumors she has heard. She gets home and everything is fine.

Well-written and beautifully illustrated, Francie and the Basket Women
should appeal to a wide age group. The book is not only a great
adventure story, it also offers a fine lesson in overcoming prejudice,
which we still need to hear today. Highly recommended.