Covered Bridge

Jean Free, a library consultant, is a retired public-school teacher and
librarian in Whitby, Ontario.

Hubbo O’Driscoll tries to save the covered bridge over Mushrat Creek
when a new bridge is built to make the road straighter. Saying, “I
would rather save it for Posterity. For without a past, we have no
future,” he starts a petition among the farming community in the
Gatineau, where the orphaned Hubbo lives with his guardian aunt and
uncle.

This book, a continuation of Doyle’s Easy Avenue, should have a
considerable appeal for intermediate students, with its humor, budding
romantic interest, social responsibility, mystery, and crusade for the
past. Doyle writes in his usual fast-paced, clear, easy-to-read style,
with short chapters. When it is available in paperback, this book will
be a good choice for a novel study. It could also serve as a supplement
to historical units, or for reading aloud to history classes.

Covered Bridge recently won the Mr. Christie Book Award in the fiction
category, from among more than two hundred submissions. Doyle is an
Ottawa teacher and the author of six novels, including Up to Low and
Easy Avenue (winners of the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the
Year Award) and Angel Square (which has been made into a film).