Synopsis
Twelve-year-old Mary and her older brother and sister tend the family farm on Michigan's Mackinac Island while their father is away fighting the British in the War of 1812.
When Mary O'Shea's father leaves their home on Mackinac Island to fight in the War of 1812, she and her brother and sister are left to manage the family farm. The family's efforts are made more difficult when the British invade and occupy the island. The first book in the trilogy.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1996-09-01 | | Series: | Ramos, Eugenio (Illustrator | | Edition Description: | Reprint |
| Size | | Length: | 186 pages | | Height: | 8.0 in | | Width: | 5.0 in | | Thickness: | 0.5 in | | Weight: | 4.8 oz |
Publisher's Note
When war erupts between England and America in 1812, it brings change and uncertainty to Michagan's remote Mackinac Island. For young Mary O'Shea, the hardest change is the departure of her father, who leaves Mackinac to join the Ameircan Army in Detroit. With her sister and brother, Mary must tend the farm, deal with the hardships of British occupation, and hope for the day when peace--and her father--will return.
Industry Reviews
Gr 4-7 A novel set on Mackinac Island, Michigan, during the War of 1812. Mary, 12, recounts her family's plight as her father leaves his motherless children tending the farm while he joins the American forces in Detroit fighting the British. Jacques, 15, struggles to keep his promise to take care of the farm and his two sisters when the temptation to join the army or the fur trading business prevails. Sixteen-year-old Angelique's flirtations with the British soldiers during the occupation of their island home infuriates both her brother and sister. Despite these distractions, the young people still manage to maintain a productive farm for the three-year period of the war. Whelan weaves the Indian and American culture together through a complex secondary character, Gavin, an Indian boy raised by Mary's neighbors, who is forced to come to terms with his heritage as he makes the crucial decision to leave his Anglo parents and way of life and rejoin his tribe. Well-rounded fiction that incorporates a little romance, adventure, drama, and history of an American period that is not as commonly used for background. Rita Soltan, Baldwin Public Library, Birmingham, MI
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