Cher Journal : Noëls d'antan

Dear Canada

by Sarah Ellis

Les dix récits rassemblés dans ce roman relatent les événements qui sont survenus durant la période des fêtes, après que les héroïnes des romans de la collection Cher Journal eurent terminé d'écrire leur journal intime. Il n'est toutefois pas nécessaire d'avoir lu les autres livres de la collection ou de connaître les héroïnes pour comprendre et apprécier les récits du présent ouvrage.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Christmas, Canada, Diary, Childrens, Young Adult, Fiction

257 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Writer, columnist, and librarian Sarah Ellis has become one of the best-known authors for young adults in her native Canada with titles such as The Baby Project, Pick-Up Sticks, and Back of Beyond: Stories of the Supernatural. In addition to young adult novels, Ellis has also written for younger children and has authored several books about the craft of writing. Praised by Booklist contributor Hazel Rochman as "one of the best children's literature critics," Ellis "writes without condescension or pedantry. . . . Her prose is a delight: plain, witty, practical, wise."

Ellis was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1952, the youngest of three children in her family. As she once noted, "[My] joy in embroidering the truth probably comes from my own childhood. My father was a rich mine of anecdotes and jokes. He knew more variations on the 'once there were three men in a rowboat' joke than anyone I've encountered since.

Reviews

[writer... · Rating 5 out of 5]

#CanadianBookChallenge10 - canadian located + authored
Warm historical collection of stories featuring a variety of nationalities celebrating Christmas in Canada. Excellent descriptions of family traditions including worship, decorating, meals, and gift exchanging experienced across Canada in earlier eras.

[Twyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked all of the stories, so it was hard to pick a favourite, but if I had to it would most likely be either the first story about Fiona and how her sister had started to act differently, or the third story, about Devorah being upset about where she is spending Christmas, until she learns that the person she is staying with will be lonely when she leaves.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have appreciated if Devorah and Sally’s stories were less about Christmas and more about Hanukkah.

[Olli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! I loved all the characters except a few that I won't go into great detail about. Overall an amazing book.

[Molly]

This entire series is a wonderful way to learn history or teach it to adolescents. I find today's generations seem to recall more when they learn through other people (pop songs, celebrity gossip, etc.), so what better way to teach history than through someone else's perspective? Yes, "authentic" diaries would be "better", but would the language really hold the modern student's attention? Did the diary writer know what WOULD be important in the context of history? Probably not.

[melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think my daughters are going to really like this book and it's simple, yet effective, delivery of history through personal accounts. The reason I read the book first was to see if there were any Santa Claus spoilers as my oldest is 7. (There are!) She reads at a much higher level but she doesn't need everything ruined for her just yet. I've hidden this book away until next Christmas. We will see what her views on Santa Claus are then. This year she can still believe.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was overall great writing, but was somewhat hard to comprehend, as some of the books of the characters, I hadn’t read, so I didn’t know anything about them and their family, but they still talked about them.

[Annette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sure if you read all of the original stories for each character this book would have been easier to follow. I was surprised a few errors in the book where I found myself turning the pages back and forth to see if I was missing one because the sentence ended in the middle.
I few cute stories, not all of them concerning Christmas.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these books..

[Charmaine Puzey · Rating 3 out of 5]

was fun to read