Lyn Cook (1918–2018)

A story taken out of time. Written in the 1950's, Pegeen and the Pilgrim reads as a sweet piece of nostalgia and history. Pegeen is a young adolescent with big dreams to be an actress. Her mom runs a boarding house which keeps Pegeen busy with chores and accountability. When Mr. B comes to stay at the boarding house things get much more interesting for Pegeen as he immerses her in the world of William Shakespeare. At the same time, the very first Shakespeare Festival is coming to Stratford, Canada. Very sweet, warm story depicting bygone days.… (meer)

This was an interesting find on the school library book shelf. Without a cover jacket, the copy of the book I read was not appealing to an elementary school audience and was almost destined for culling. I decided to give it a read and was glad that I did. This book is an excellent look into the day-to-day lives of Canadian families living near Toronto in the 1830's. Focused around the Cartwrights, a fictitious family based on real people, we get a close look into typical family life and survival in bush, the wonder the children experience in "big city" Toronto with its plank sidewalks, the family's involvement with William Lyon Mackenzie's rise and fall during the Rebellion of 1837, and the sense of community as families work together to raise barns, bring in the harvest, pare apples, and help out new immigrant families.
The characters are all believable and young readers will be able to identify with eleven-year-old Deb Cartwright and her brother Davy.
This would make an excellent read-aloud for classes studying pioneer life in early Canada.… (meer)