The Refuge

Kim Van Vliet is a Winnipeg-based freelance writer.

This book for preteens has a familiar theme. After her father deserts
them, 12-year-old Barbara Couts and her mother must move from their
large house in an affluent neighborhood to a small townhouse next to an
industrial park. Friendless and with her mother working long hours to
support them, Barb faces summer holidays that look bleak and lonely
until she finds a small green space, in the middle of the park, that
becomes a refuge from the upheaval in her life. With the arrival of
school, Barb begins to create a new life for herself, only to discover
that her garden refuge is no longer a safe place.

Family breakdown and the estrangement of a parent are crises many young
people struggle with. Hughes deals with these issues sympathetically,
without giving easy answers and without undue moralizing. This absorbing
and well-written story underscores Hughes’s reputation as “one of
Canada’s best-known and best-loved young adult authors.”