Winds of L'Acadie.

Deborah Dowson is a Canaadian children’s librarian in North Wales,
Pennsylvania.

Sarah leads a pampered and glamorous life in Toronto that contrasts sharply with her grandparent’s simple rural life in Nova Scotia, where she has come to spend the summer. Sarah finds herself drawn to the history of Acadia and particularly to the plight of the Acadians who were deported from the area in 1755. Her interest becomes more than historical when a magical object takes her back to 1755, where she lives with an Acadian family for several weeks. She grows to feel close to the family and responsible for their welfare. Returning to present day, she enlists the help of her friend Luke, and although they cannot change history, they manage to go back just in time to warn the Acadian family and prepare them for the deportation before it happens.

The strength of this story lies in the depiction of the Acadian deportation and the details of daily life at that time. Even though the deportation is inevitable, the question of the individual outcome for the LeBlanc family is filled with suspense and danger. The scenes in present day that lead up to the story’s climax are less engaging. The initial characterization of Sarah as a stereotypical spoiled city girl who is annoyed by the clumsy but cute country boy Luke seems awkward and forced. However, once Sarah becomes involved with the historical aspect of the story she becomes a believable character. This book would work best as classroom support for the study of the Acadian deportation.