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A Bushel of Light
I was trapped here in this square brick house Trapped with Willy's threats, Matthew's roars, Kathleen's silences -- not because I couldn't run away again if I chose to, and not because I had no money, or because I was scared of being alone in the dark countryside I was trapped because of Lizzy; because I couldn't turn her into an orphan like me Six years ago Maggie was torn from her twin sister and sent to Canada as a Barnardo Home child Orphaned and completely alone, she found herself living with the Howards, a falling-apart family with a falling-apart farm Now, just 14 years old, Maggie is already responsible for all of the housework, a great deal of the farm work, and the care of the Howard's four-year-old daughter, Lizzy Maggie is meant to stay on the farm for seven more years, but then how would she ever find her sister again? With the words run away whispering through her head, Maggie struggles to find a way to save both herself and Lizzy Canadian Children's Book Centre, Our Choice selection Red Maple Award Nominee Geoffrey Bilson Award Honour Book
- GenresHistorical Fiction
244 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2000
19 people want to read
About the author
Troon Harrison
88 books9 followersTroon Harrison is an internationally published, award winning author, an editor, and a qualified teacher. Troon writes picture books, teen-adult cross-over novels, and junior chapter books. She has 24 books published in a range of genres including historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 14, 2025
In her set in early 20th century Canada middle grade historical fiction novel A Bushel of Light (2000), Troon Harrison shows how fourteen year old main protagonist Maggie Curnow (who is one of thousands of orphaned British children sent to Canada by the Barnardo Homes Agency) has spent six years (since she was eight years old) with the Howard family on their farm near Peterborough, Ontario (as basically an indentured servant and thus pretty much like a slave in many ways, washing clothes, hauling firewood, pouring slop, hoeing weeds, cooking, baking, cleaning the house, working in the fields during planting and harvesting time, basically doing anything and everything that pater familias Matthew Howard orders Maggie to do, although I guess I should point out that Maggie did at least have the opportunity to attend school until she reached the age of fourteen).
And worn out not just from the constant, often backbreaking work and generally possessing no personal freedom but even more so from having to emotionally deal and cope with the rather dysfunctional Howard family (withdrawn and depressed Kathleen who can do nothing but mourn for two sons who tragically drowned, Matthew who instead of supporting his fragile wife lavishes all his attention and love on his horses instead, angry oldest son Willy who longs to leave the farm and four-year-old Lizzy who totally depends on Maggie for any and all mothering since her mother, since Kathleen Howard is obviously both unable and unwilling to do so) Harrison shows with A Bushel of Light that Maggie Curnow (and very much with ample justification in my opinion, as the Howards except for Lizzy are textually pretty much a collective horror story and much too needy and huge emotional vampires) desperately wants to run away, even though her contract (from when Maggie was sent from England to Canada) requires as per the Barnado Homes Agency statutes seven more years of indentured servitude.
So after in A Bushel of Light Maggie keeps having troubling dreams about her twin sister (from whom she was separated when her father drowned and her mother died in childbirth, with Thomasina being sent to their aunt in Wales and Maggie to Canada) learns from the Barnado agent who periodically comes to check on her welfare that her sister has been after the aunt's death also sent to Canada and indeed to farm nearby, this immediately and completely fuels Maggie's determination to once and for all escape, and after arranging care for Kathleen and Lizzy from their family in Toronto, Troon Harrison shows Maggie Curnow leaving the Howards to go searching for Thomasina, with said quest proving difficult but for me personally also with rather unbelievable and annoyingly deus ex machina like and saccharinely positive results. For yes, how in A Bushel of Light Maggie is reunited with Thomasina (and how quickly all possible family specific issues between them are resolved and everything is suddenly pretty much hunky-dory so to speak), while I do appreciate the happy ending Harrison provides in A Bushel of Light, this is also so ridiculously tidy and on the surface as to be fantastical and that in particular how Thomasina after also being sent to Canada ends up in the exact same area of Ontario where her twin sister Maggie had been sent six years earlier and how quickly everything becomes easily resolved, this does make me personally (and in particular my inner middle grade reader) groan and shake my head with and in huge frustration and equally so more than a bit of annoyance.
And while Harrison's portrait in A Bushel of Light of life on an early 20th-century Canadian farm and Maggie’s daily routines nicely reflect both the hardships faced by farming families fighting for survival and success against harsh elements, against threats, dangers etc. and also focuses on the ordeals of displaced children struggling to endure and to retain their sense of and for humanity, the for me rather unbelievable manner of how Maggie and Thomasina Curnow are shown by Troon Harrison as finding each other and are reunited, this in my opinion makes the main storyline of A Bushel of Light not all that realistic and in fact too much like a fairy tale with huge coincidences and a happily-ever-after ending and that my rating for a Bushel of Light can and will thus only be a rather low three stars, and actually two and a half stars if Goodreads were to allow half star ratings (and that I would also only recommend what Harrison textually provides in A Bushel of Light with the caveat mentioned above, that Maggie and Thomasina story might have a realistic narrational core and premise but that much of the narrative meat so to speak is annoyingly too good to be true and with far too many coincidences).
And worn out not just from the constant, often backbreaking work and generally possessing no personal freedom but even more so from having to emotionally deal and cope with the rather dysfunctional Howard family (withdrawn and depressed Kathleen who can do nothing but mourn for two sons who tragically drowned, Matthew who instead of supporting his fragile wife lavishes all his attention and love on his horses instead, angry oldest son Willy who longs to leave the farm and four-year-old Lizzy who totally depends on Maggie for any and all mothering since her mother, since Kathleen Howard is obviously both unable and unwilling to do so) Harrison shows with A Bushel of Light that Maggie Curnow (and very much with ample justification in my opinion, as the Howards except for Lizzy are textually pretty much a collective horror story and much too needy and huge emotional vampires) desperately wants to run away, even though her contract (from when Maggie was sent from England to Canada) requires as per the Barnado Homes Agency statutes seven more years of indentured servitude.
So after in A Bushel of Light Maggie keeps having troubling dreams about her twin sister (from whom she was separated when her father drowned and her mother died in childbirth, with Thomasina being sent to their aunt in Wales and Maggie to Canada) learns from the Barnado agent who periodically comes to check on her welfare that her sister has been after the aunt's death also sent to Canada and indeed to farm nearby, this immediately and completely fuels Maggie's determination to once and for all escape, and after arranging care for Kathleen and Lizzy from their family in Toronto, Troon Harrison shows Maggie Curnow leaving the Howards to go searching for Thomasina, with said quest proving difficult but for me personally also with rather unbelievable and annoyingly deus ex machina like and saccharinely positive results. For yes, how in A Bushel of Light Maggie is reunited with Thomasina (and how quickly all possible family specific issues between them are resolved and everything is suddenly pretty much hunky-dory so to speak), while I do appreciate the happy ending Harrison provides in A Bushel of Light, this is also so ridiculously tidy and on the surface as to be fantastical and that in particular how Thomasina after also being sent to Canada ends up in the exact same area of Ontario where her twin sister Maggie had been sent six years earlier and how quickly everything becomes easily resolved, this does make me personally (and in particular my inner middle grade reader) groan and shake my head with and in huge frustration and equally so more than a bit of annoyance.
And while Harrison's portrait in A Bushel of Light of life on an early 20th-century Canadian farm and Maggie’s daily routines nicely reflect both the hardships faced by farming families fighting for survival and success against harsh elements, against threats, dangers etc. and also focuses on the ordeals of displaced children struggling to endure and to retain their sense of and for humanity, the for me rather unbelievable manner of how Maggie and Thomasina Curnow are shown by Troon Harrison as finding each other and are reunited, this in my opinion makes the main storyline of A Bushel of Light not all that realistic and in fact too much like a fairy tale with huge coincidences and a happily-ever-after ending and that my rating for a Bushel of Light can and will thus only be a rather low three stars, and actually two and a half stars if Goodreads were to allow half star ratings (and that I would also only recommend what Harrison textually provides in A Bushel of Light with the caveat mentioned above, that Maggie and Thomasina story might have a realistic narrational core and premise but that much of the narrative meat so to speak is annoyingly too good to be true and with far too many coincidences).
December 14, 2016
A nice historical fiction piece about a girl trying to reconnect with her sister. It felt fairly predictable to me, and everything just got tied up too neatly for my taste at the end, but a pleasant read for upper elementary or middle level students.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews