Hoping for Home - Stories of Arrival (Dear Canada Series)
Scholastic Canada, 2011.

Rating: G

This new book in the Dear Canada Series will take you on an historical roller coaster ride from the 1850s to the 1960s. Like all the books in the Dear Canada Series, the stories are written in the form of diary entries. The characters writing their diary entries include 4 boys out of the 11 stories. These short stories by different Canadian authors will give you a glimpse into the hardships and joys that these children and families experienced. Most of these stories will pull you in emotionally and provide you with some authentic and riveting details that transport you into that time period.

The list of Canadian writers who contributed to this book include: Lillian Boraks-Nemetz, Marie-Andrée Clermont, Afua Cooper, Brian Doyle, Rukhsana Kahan, Jean Little, Kit Pearson, Ruby Slipperjack, Shelley Tanaka, Irene N. Watts and Paul Yee. The title Hoping for Home - Stories of Arrival and the cover which illustrates a Caucasian family arriving with all their belongings, an oriental boy alone with his bags in the background and a steam train are slightly misleading. First of all, not all of the stories are about immigrant families. One story by Ruby Slipperjack is about a Cree and Ojibway family who bring their sick child from the bush where they have their trap line in northwestern Ontario to a city for medical help. Another story by Brian Doyle depicts the life of a poor adolescent boy growing up in post World War II Ottawa. Clermont’s story recounts a family move from Abitibi to Thetford Mines in Quebec due to a house fire, an ensuing mining disaster and the seriousness of infectious diseases in 1938. The cover does not accurately portray the range of visual minority immigrants that are described in this book which is unfortunate. Two young girls are also in the foreground which may dissuade boys from picking up this book.

Before every story, there is a short paragraph describing the major event or circumstances in that story. Most of the authors have a personal connection to the events described in their story. As we navigate through this book we encounter wealthy young British girls traveling through Canada, who become stranded during the start of World War II, British children from Dr. Barnardo’s orphanages sent here to be adopted or become servants and a family returning from Formosa (Taiwan) just before World War II begins. Asian immigrant stories include the Japanese deportation in 1942, the trials and tribulations of Chinese immigrants on the prairies and the difficulties encountered by some of the first Pakistani families arriving in Canada during the 1960s. The Japanese deportation diary entries are written by two sisters Amy and Kay Yoshida. Deciphering which sister is writing is somewhat challenging and frustrating. The only clue is one date is written in italics and the other date isn’t. A clear indication of the character’s name by the entry would have been less confusing for the reader. Boraks-Nemetz writes about the pain and suffering of a Jewish family who immigrate to Quebec from Poland. They escape the Holocaust but most of their family including one daughter does not survive. A family of Free blacks who move from Virginia to Canada west learn quickly that Canada is not as kind and respectful of their rights as they had earlier envisioned.

The pain of family separation, the pain of racist remarks and physical beatings, the anguish of being uprooted from your community due to your ethnic origin, the fight to attend school because of your skin colour, the frustration of not knowing the language and the presumption that you are stupid - these are the injustices these children and their families endured coming to Canada. Khan’s story left a lasting impression - the young girl from Pakistan, Farkhanda takes five baths a day to wash the dirt off of her skin because she’s constantly being told she is dirty. Due to insensitive school experiences and writing letters to Santa, she also looks all over the house for presents Christmas morning even though her family is Muslim. Shame, misery, isolation, loneliness and dejection are only some of the feelings we can imagine through these characters. Although Brian Doyle’s story set in Ottawa also has many sad and sobering elements, it is by far the funniest story that will have you laughing out loud. It should have been placed strategically in the middle to give the reader an emotional break from the sadness and anguish in these other stories.

I think that young adults wanting to get an overview of Canadian and immigrant experiences will learn a lot from this book with these personal stories. Learning this information from the perspective of these characters will likely make readers care more about these events and the real people who experienced them. This book should also stimulate questions and discussions with parents and teachers, and hopefully propel readers to read and learn more about these Canadian experiences.

Vivienne Fogarty
Vol. 16, number 5
June 2011

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.