Nobody Asked Me

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

Growing up, and being away from Mom and Dad for the first time, are difficult experiences in any young life, and doubly difficult for 13-year-old Rachel, who has spent all her growing years in an isolated forestry station, completely alone with her parents. Suddenly, a family crisis dictates that she must be left with a friend of her mother, an “Aunt” who is a stranger to her.

Mom’s brother, Uncle Sharky, lives near this make-believe-aunt, and, during her time as a guest in Port Chance, it becomes very important to Rachel to bring her “Aunt” and Uncle together — even though it is obvious they are displeased by her interference in their affairs. When Rachel the loner meets Bosko, a boy close to her own age, her meddlesome interest in her elders fades as she becomes fully concerned with her own state of mind. No longer busy trying to build a “family” for her own security, the lonely child is moving toward becoming an outward-looking young woman. This first delicate little flowering of love will probably come to nothing, but it will never, never be forgotten. A perceptive novel for young readers.