Lesia's Dream

by Laura Langston

FIFTEEN-YEAR OLD LESIA can hardly bear it. She and her family must leave their beloved Baba in their Ukrainian hometown in order to flee to Canada. Dreaming of fields of wheat, wealth and security, Lesia looks forward to a life in Canada, free from poverty and rumours of war. But the 160 acres of hardscrabble prairie look nothing like the wheat fields of her dreams. And even though there is no fighting in her new country, the First World War follows them there.

SHORTLISTED FOR
The Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award, The Snow Willow Award and The Rocky Mountain Book Award

Genres: Historical Fiction, Canada, Ukraine, Fiction, Young Adult

240 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

By the time she hit Grade Four, Laura Langston knew she wanted to be a writer. So did the teachers. It was the persistent daydreaming and invisible friends that tipped them off. Since Laura grew up knowing no writers – and consequently didn’t know how to be one – she became a journalist instead. The trouble is, journalists are expected to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

But making stuff up is way more fun. So eventually Laura traded one notebook for another and today she writes books for tweens, teens, children and sometimes adults.

When she’s not writing, reading or walking her Shetland sheepdogs, Laura can be found spying on people in the grocery store or twisting herself into a pretzel in yoga class. To learn more, visit www.lauralangston.com. Follow her at www.facebook.com/LauraLangston.Author

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

In her 2003 young adult historical fiction novel Lesia's Dream, Laura Langston's narrative descriptively (and for the most part decently realistically) shows how in 2014 fifteen year old Lesia Magus and her older brother Ivan convince their parents to emigrate from Ukraine (at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) to Manitoba, Canada (and thus not vice versa), where the family pays ten dollars for one hundred and sixty acres of scrub woodland which they must (by governmental mandate) then clear to turn into farmland, albeit with the family dream nearly being shattered when in Lesia's Dream both Ivan and his father are interned as enemy aliens since Canada has gone to war against Austria (WWI), leaving Lesia and her pregnant mother to manage everything by themselves, all alone. But in Lesia's Dream, our main protagonist (and this being of course Lesia) is presented by Langston successfully clearing the necessary acres of land (although with sympathetic neighbours also pitching in and offering assistance), helping her mother give birth, selling belts, eggs and butter to avoid her father’s fierce determination not to borrow money. And although one neighbour is hugely vicious to Lesia and that strangers often reject the “bohunks” out of hand, Lesia's Dream also textually shows how many of the farmers are more than generous, are both friendly and equally so accepting (and Lesia also falling in love with Andrew Korol, who, at twenty, is already a widower) and with Lesia's Dream structured by Laura Langston as having Lesia Magus telling her story in 2003 to her great granddaughter (who is also her namesake) and that the first and last pages of Lesia's Dream are in italics with Lesia speaking to her great granddaughter, with the rest of the novel appearing in chapters that are dated from March, 1914 to May, 1915.

Now Lesia's Dream is true to history with Ivan’s socialist, union activities, the imprisonment of enemy aliens and the pioneer struggles regarding sod huts, extreme weather as well as with hugely, hugely frustrating government regulations and annoying bureaucracy. At the same time, Lesia's Dream is a compelling story of what is being faced post immigration to Canada by one particular Ukrainian family and that the Maguses, that the father, mother and their two teenaged children thus very quickly become textually endeared to the reader and how in particular Lesia is depicted by Langston as a fiercely determined girl whose strength and whose courage in the face of physical danger and emotional agony is majorly heartening not to mention inspiring (and that Lesia is also pretty much the catalyst that pushes her family to immigrate to Canada, although Ivan also is part of this but not as strongly moving forward as Lesia is being described by Laura Langston). However and just to say that albeit Lesia is delightfully active in Lesia's Dream, is self confident, is not ever afraid to work hard, is always seemingly the driving force for her family, while this makes my inner child totally smile and be hugely textually appreciative, sorry, but for adult me, how Langston depicts and features Lesia is almost a bit too much and too positive, is too good to be true and almost verging on being a bit fantastical (and that while my inner child rates Lesia's Dream with five stars, my adult reading self can and will only consider three stars and is a wee bit disappointed by Laura Langston making Lesia Magus almost into some kind of almost Amazon-like heroine, so that the combined rating of Lesia's Dream from both of us is thus four stars, is warmly recommended but with the caveat that Lesia is for me overly and as such equally exaggeratedly too much heroically shown and rendered).

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the strongest Canadian historical fiction works I've read.

A life of pride. A life with land. A life where no one dies of hunger or ravaged by a sickness made strong by malnutrition and overwork. That is Lesia and Ivan's dream, and they've convinced their parents to move to Canada to pursue it. But they're Ukrainian, and Canada isn't convinced it likes immigrants who are peasants in places far from England.

This book about an immigrant's pioneer story is a refreshing addition to the Little House genre. It adds a layer of gritty reality to the rose-coloured glasses too often worn by authors looking at the era when we broke the prairie sod.

Lesia is refreshingly active in this book. Not someone taken on the journey by her family, she's driving them forward, hustling for food, shoveling the dirt, harvesting the plants. She and her brother Ivan have the idea to leave the Ukraine that changes her family's lives, and the sense of responsibility that she labours under is well-written.

I think the mixing of the pioneer story with the internment camps of WWI adds real interest. The prejudice in this story against the Ukrainians is staggering, and yet handled deftly. I never once felt crushed by it.

I'd highly recommend this to anyone looking for a good novel to complement a study of North American history. I'm glad to have found a book that covers so much ground for my Manitoba unit study!

[Glynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

About a little Ukrainian girl growing up on the Canadian prairies - easy read, nice story, cultural insights.

[Zen]

I'm adding this in honor of someone's B-Day! :) Unfortunately, my library has no copies so I will have to go find it!

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great. A book about immigrating to Canada that shows the struggle. Lesia feels very real and it’s like you’re living there with her. At point the treatment of her and her family is shocking and hard to read, but never too overwhelming. Very beautiful ending.
Personally felt drawn to this as my great grandma immigrated also from Ukraine, and this book did not disappoint.

[Bethany Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put it down. Wonderfully written full of culture, perseverance, hope and dreams.

[Stanley Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exposed the reality of Canada pretty well. Vivid story of perseverance.

[Christina Miltenburg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Lesia’s Dream was like listening to my Great Great Grandmother and Grandmother tell their stories again.

[Bella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would not have picked out this book were it not for it being required reading in my role as instructor. I was intrigued by Lesia's experience as immigrant enough to read on after what seemed to me pages of lackadaisical writing at the beginning. I still don't think the book has any extraordinary literary merits, but its story affected me intellectually nonetheless.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a story of a Ukrainian family immigrating to Canada right before World War I, and all the hardships they face as a discriminated immigrant family in a new country, speaking a foreign language and given a plot of difficult land. I really enjoyed it because it gave me a perspective on Canada that I didn't really know about. It's a good story.

Favourite female: Lesia Magus. I just like her. A good, strong, moral character who has to take care of her family when the males are away and her mom is sick.
Favourite male: Andrew Korol. What's not to like?
Least favourite female: I didn't mind Minnie that much. Sure, she was an inconsiderate, nasty girl, your typical antagonist (rather like I remember Nellie in Little House on the Prairie), but I saw a glimmer of redemption towards the end of the book. I didn't particularly like Ahafia Magus, Lesia's mom.
Least favourite male: Gregory Magus, her dad

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I failed to ask my own grandmother about her experiences growing up on the prairie after her parents came to Canada from Eastern/Central Europe. I read "Lesia's Dream" for one example at what life could have been like for her, so I was reading more for the "historical" part of historical fiction. But along with giving a detailed picture of the natural and human world in part of Manitoba around the time of World War I, the book has a strong and endearing protagonist, and the story flows very nicely. It turned out to be a quick read because I was so thoroughly pulled into Lesia's story.

[Cindy Lol · Rating 5 out of 5]

this true story (i supposed) is sentimental of describing the true life of new Canadian immigrant and inspiration of having hope to live and fighting off the discrimination of class system and prejudice o its identity.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so surprised why this book isn't more popular! Sure, it isn't the kind of story most want to read about, but I still love it! Lesia and her dream have such an important message within this book, and even though I found this at an old secondhand store, I cherish it. Definitely reccomend!!

[Andriy Lyashchuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

nothing

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Use this book for our CDN Immigration unit in Social Studies.