Ellie's New Home Book

Ellie and her little brother Max find themselves moving from their grandmother's comfortable home in England to Upper Canada. Their mother is dead, Father wants to start over again, and in 1835 there are many opportunities for settlers in British North America. Despite the strangeness of this vast new world, Ellie is sure things will turn out all right, as long as the family stays together. But once they are in Upper Canada, Father leaves Ellie and Max with strangers on an isolated homestead, while he goes on ahead to find land and build a cabin. Although the mother and father are kind to her, Ellie makes an enemy of their daughter Mary, who is insulted by the newcomer's distant manners, fine clothes and talk of her London home. Ellie's loneliness and discomfort, however, gradually turns into a growing fear. Where is Father? Why hasn't he come back to them? A gripping story for young readers that explored the world of early settlers. Becky Citra was inspired to write Ellie's New Home after reading the classic A Canadian Settler's Guide by Catherine Parr Traill. A warning in the book told parents to take careful note where they left their children along the long, poorly charted routes or they might never be reunited. A primary teacher in a rural school, Becky is the author of two previous children's novels: My Homework is in the Mail and School Campout. Ellie's New Home is the first of five books in the Max and Ellie series. Book two is The Freezing Moon Book three is Danger at The Landings Book four is Runaway Book five is Strawberry Moon

Children's Literature

Traveling from England to Canada in 1835 was not easy, but Ellie's father had insisted on bringing Ellie and her brother with him, in spite of their grandmother's protests. When Ellie and five-year-old Max were left with a farm family while Father went on to find a place for them to settle, Ellie was miserable. She knew nothing of farm life and rejected the friendly gestures of Mary and her mother, preferring to hold on to her English gentility. It takes a life-threatening emergency and a joint run through a storm-drenched forest for Ellie and Mary to become the friends they had both wanted to be. The easy reader format makes this book accessible for beginning readers. 1999, Orca Book Publishers, Ages 6 to 10, $5.95. Reviewer: Phyllis Kennemer