Promise Song Book

The year is 1900 and orphaned 14-year-old Rosetta and her beloved younger sister Flora sail from England as “home girls.” They are sent to Canada so that they can have a chance at family life. Their dreams are shattered when Flora is adopted, but Rosetta is deemed to be too old. She is to become a farm worker, far from Flora’s new home.

Rosetta’s only dream is to find her sister. But slowly and against her will, she is drawn into the lives of the strange couple with whom she has been placed. It is soon clear to her that their home is full of fear and sorrow.

As her relationship develops with the farmer’s wife, Rosetta learns that true sisterhood can take many forms. The support the two young women offer one another makes each one stronger until they find a way to follow their dreams.

School Library Journal

Gr 6-9Holeman's offering is full of the suffering and hard work of frontier life. Rosetta and her sister, Flora, once lived lives of ease, but the death of their parents has left them in an English orphanage. Sent to Canada, the girls anticipate being adopted by a loving family, but the younger Flora is rapidly grabbed up, and the older girl is sent to an isolated farm. Albert and Runa need Rosetta's labor and make it clear that she is under contract to earn her keep. There's more melodrama here than required, but as time passes the main characters become less cardboard. Runa is suffering from the deaths of her babies, and while Albert's gruffness and cold heart never disappear, readers do get glimpses of a softness and humanity that he himself thinks of as weakness. A harrowing depiction of an attack on Rosetta's virtue by a hired hand may cause concern, but the author carefully makes the threat obvious without graphically depicting it, and Rosetta is able to protect herself and escape. Although not as good as Luanne Armstrong's Annie (Orca, 1995), this novel will engage readers, especially those who enjoy shedding a few tears over obvious injustices. Rosetta's pluck and determination make her an admirable heroine, and the story is exciting. Maybe not a "read it and weep," but a likely "read it and sniffle."Carol A. Edwards, Minneapolis Public Library