Tess

Lisa Arsenault is an elementary-school teacher in Ajax, Ontario.

The year is 1857 and Tess, a Scottish Highlands 13-year-old, is being
forced by family circumstances to move to the New World. This is the
story of her voyage to Vancouver and her adventures in British Columbia.
Unpleasant aspects of 19th-century society are not glossed over. Tess
befriends a party of women who are traveling steering class and must
fight to improve their abominable conditions. The indifferent and/or
prejudiced treatment of Indians is addressed but First Nations peoples
are not romanticized: trade in slaves among the tribes is described, and
the Haida practice of reshaping babies’ heads is likened to Chinese
foot binding.

The character of Tess is particularly intriguing; Reekie endows her
intrepid heroine with characteristics that modern girls will identify
with, but she avoids the trap of making her behave in ways inconsistent
with her era. As well as being an excellent adventure story, Tess is
well written and replete with lyrical descriptive passages, especially
those involving the ocean (e.g., “As the ship rose and plunged in the
rolling sea, phosphorescent spray laced the dark with diamonds”).
Highly recommended.