Ordinary Miracles

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.

Set in the fictional community of Sky Falls in Ontario’s Muskoka
region, the 13 interconnected short stories in this collection begin and
end with Art Pinney. After being left by his widowed mother at a
Bernardo home for orphans in London, England, Art is shipped to Canada,
where, following two years of physical mistreatment on the farm to which
he has been assigned, 11-year-old Art runs away on December 22, 1911.
About to die from exposure, Art is rescued by a girl he later claims is
from the future.

When readers meet Art, he is 102 and awaiting death, but still looking
for the girl he encountered in 1911, who supposedly kept his 1909
landing card to Canada. In many of the remaining stories, which occur
over about a year, Art makes cameo appearances, but these stories focus
on a number of the community’s teenagers and their personal issues.
These include coming to terms with being gay (“The Art of
Embalming”), dealing with adulterous parents (“Cold Snap” and
“Sarah Moonglow”) and embarrassing parents (“Frog Palace” and
“Ordinary Miracles”), experiencing the anguish of first love
(“Yasmine, Ylang-Ylang, Rose” and “Hero”), making career choices
(Roadkill), and encountering death (“Moose,” “Mom?!” and
“Wings”). The closing story, “The Girl from the Future,”
completes Art’s story as a most unusual miracle occurs.

While a number of the stories are told from a male perspective, this
most readable collection, with its strong focus on character, will
likely appeal more to high-school girls. Recommended.