Secrets: Stories Selected by Marthe Jocelyn

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.

Jocelyn has compiled 12 excellent original short stories connected by
the shared theme of secrets. Ranging in length from nine to 22 pages,
the stories feature middle-school–aged female characters. With one
exception, the mostly contemporary stories are authored by Canadians,
with some, like Anne Laurel Carter, Gillian Chan, Marthe Jocelyn, Julie
Johnston, and Teresa Toten, being familiar names to the intended
audience. Readers may recognize Loris Lesynski and the late Dayal Kaur
Khalsa as authors they encountered during their early years of
schooling. Newcomers include Susan Adach, Anne Gray, Nancy Hartry, and
Martha Slaughter, with the prolific Elizabeth Winthrop being the sole
American contributor.

In most instances, the central character possesses the secret as occurs
in Carter’s “Can You Keep a Secret?” in which Anne discovers her
Grade 6 teacher, upon whom she has a crush, cheating on his wife.
However, in Johnston’s “The Gift,” the secret is external: Ros’s
family has kept from her the existence of a sixth sister. Secrets can
emotionally enslave, as happens in Toten’s “Father’s Day,” in
which Katie “kills” her father rather than admit he is an abusive
alcoholic. Secrets can also be empowering, as in Hartry’s “The
Thunderbird Swing,” in which Cyndy holds the true knowledge about a
supposed accident. Secrets are kept to protect self or others, as in
Lesynski’s “I Don’t Have to Tell You Everything” and
Winthrop’s “The Golden Darters.” While most of the stories are
serious in tone, Jocelyn’s “How It Happened in Peach Hill” is
lighter, as the scammer is scammed. Secrets concludes with brief,
alphabetically arranged profiles of the collection’s authors. Highly
recommended.