Book ~ "Bluebird" (2022) Genevieve Graham

From Goodreads ~ Present day - Cassie Simmons, a museum curator, is enthusiastic about solving mysteries from the past and she has a personal interest in the history of the rumrunners who ferried illegal booze across the Detroit River during Prohibition. So when a cache of whisky labeled Bailey Brothers’ Best is unearthed during a local home renovation, Cassie hopes to find the answers she’s been searching for about the legendary family of bootleggers.

1918 - Corporal Jeremiah Bailey of the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company is tasked with planting mines in the tunnels beneath enemy trenches. After Jerry is badly wounded in an explosion, he finds himself in a Belgium field hospital under the care of Adele Savard, one of Canada’s nursing sisters, nicknamed “Bluebirds” for their blue gowns and white caps. As Jerry recovers, he forms a strong connection with Adele, who is from a place near his hometown of Windsor, along the Detroit River. In the midst of war, she’s a welcome reminder of home, and when Jerry is sent back to the front, he can only hope that he’ll see his bluebird again.

By war’s end, both Jerry and Adele return home to Windsor, scarred by the horrors of what they endured overseas. When they cross paths one day, they have a chance to start over. But the city is in the grip of Prohibition, which brings exciting opportunities as well as new dangerous conflicts that threaten to destroy everything they have fought for.

During World War I, Adele was a nurse on the battlelines in Belgium.  One of the Canadian soldiers brought into her care was Jerry, who was a tunneller.  He had serious injuries to his face and Adele nursed him back to health only to have him put back into action.  As she was taking care of him, they grew close but they lose touch.  When the war was over, they were sent home.  They were both from Windsor, Ontario, and carried on with their lives ... Adele got a job in a doctor's office and Jerry and his brother, John, took over their late father's whisky making business.  After being home for a couple years, Adele and Jerry finally run into each other and their feelings are still there.  It's a dangerous time because it's prohibition and there is a lot of competition in the illegal rumrunning business.

In present time, Cassie is working for a museum in Windsor and gets contacted by a carpenter who had just bought a house and is renovating it.  He finds some old whisky bottles in a wall and figures there must be some historical significance so brings them to Cassie.

I thought this book was okay.  I liked the writing style ... it's written in third person perspective with a focus on wherever the action is. Though this book was more of a romance that historical, I find I always learn something when I read this author's books.  I found that I was Googling some of the places she mentioned in Windsor to see if they are still there.  I liked Adele and Jerry's story more than Cassie's story ... Cassie had been through a lot but I didn't find her overly likeable and wasn't very sympathetic to her.  Plus I found her present story came together rather quickly.

Book ~ "Letters Across the Sea" (2021) Genevieve Graham

From Goodreads ~ If you’re reading this letter, that means I’m dead. I had obviously hoped to see you again, to explain in person, but fate had other plans.

1933
At eighteen years old, Molly Ryan dreams of becoming a journalist but instead she spends her days working any job she can to help her family through the Depression crippling her city. The one bright spot in her life is watching baseball with her best friend, Hannah Dreyfus, and sneaking glances at Hannah’s handsome older brother, Max.

But as the summer unfolds, more and more of Hitler’s hateful ideas cross the sea and “Swastika Clubs” and “No Jews Allowed” signs spring up around Toronto, a city already simmering with mass unemployment, protests, and unrest. When tensions between the Irish and Jewish communities erupt in a riot one smouldering day in August, Molly and Max are caught in the middle, with devastating consequences for both their families.

1939
Six years later, the Depression has eased and Molly is a reporter at her local paper. But a new war is on the horizon, putting everyone she cares about most in peril. As letters trickle in from overseas, Molly is forced to confront what happened all those years ago, but is it too late to make things right?

Teenager Molly is best friends with Hannah, which in the early 1930s in Toronto was not encouraged as Molly is Christian and Hannah is Jewish.  Molly is attracted to Hannah's older brother, Max, and the feeling is mutual but they can't pursue a relationship because of their religions.  During a baseball game, there is a violent riot and Molly and Max have one kiss that neither can forget and something happens that drives a wedge between the families.

Max goes off to medical school.  Due to interference of Molly's parents, she thinks he doesn't care about her anymore and he thinks the same and they don't communicate again.  Max ends up becoming a soldier and along with Molly's brothers and friends, experience horrific things overseas.  Years later when Max comes home, Molly is now a reporter and engaged to Ian.  As she spends time with Max for a story she is working on, they realize they still care deeply about it each other.

I thought this was an interesting story as I didn't realize there was such discrimination of Jews here in Toronto so I learned something.  I thought the writing style was okay ... it's first person perspective when it focuses on Molly and third person perspective when it focuses on Max.  I found there was a lot of detail when Max was overseas in the war ... it's like the author was providing a history lesson, which is fine but it sometimes read like a history book.  Set in Toronto, I knew where the places the characters spent time ... like Kensington Market, Christie Pits, etc.

Book ~ "The Forgotten Home Child" (2020) Genevieve Graham

From Goodreads

2018

At ninety-seven years old, Winnifred Ellis knows she doesn’t have much time left and it is almost a relief to realize that once she is gone, the truth about her shameful past will die with her. But when her great-grandson, Jamie, the spitting image of her dear late husband, asks about his family tree, Winnifred can’t lie any longer, even if it means breaking a promise she made so long ago.

1936

Fifteen-year-old Winny has never known a real home. After running away from an abusive stepfather, she falls in with Mary, Jack and their ragtag group of friends roaming the streets of Liverpool. When the children are caught stealing food, Winny and Mary are left in Dr. Barnardo’s Barkingside Home for Girls, a local home for orphans and forgotten children found in the city’s slums. At Barkingside, Winny learns she will soon join other boys and girls in a faraway place called Canada, where families and better lives await them.

But Winny’s hopes are dashed when she is separated from her friends and sent to live with a family that has no use for another daughter. Instead, they have paid for an indentured servant to work on their farm. Faced with this harsh new reality, Winny clings to the belief that she will someday find her friends again. 

In the mid-1930s, Winny, Mary, Jack, Edward and Cecil are children living in the streets in London.  Their families couldn't afford to support them and rather than be abused or put in orphanages, the alternative was to take to the streets and do whatever they could to eat.  The five of them are eventually rounded up and put in orphanages and then in Barnardo Homes.  After a couple years, when they are in the early to mid-teens, they are put on a boat along with hundreds of other children and sent to Canada as "Home Children".  It's positioned as a great opportunity for them as families in Canada will be taking them in.

Once they arrive, they discover that they are basically slaves living on farms, helping the poor farmers who saw this as a cheap way to get labour.  Jack, Edward and Cecil end up on a farm in the London, Ontario, area working for an abusive man who beat them for no reason.  Winny and Mary end up on different farms near Peterborough, Ontario.   Winny's mistress expects her to do many chores, sleep in a barn with the sheep and she is always hungry.  Mary lives in a shed on her mistress' property and is responsible for taking care of the children.  This is not what the Barnardo organization had promised but no one if following up.

Despite the subject matter, I liked this book ... though I did find it wrapped up rather quickly with a happy ending.  I've read other books about home children and the author does a good job letting us know what life was like for them.  I liked the writing style.  It bounces back and forth from present day with 98-year-old Winny finally telling her story to her granddaughter and great grandson to beginning with when Winny, Mary, Jack, Edward and Cecil are children on the streets, how they came to be home children, their life in Canada and what they did once they were able to leave their masters.  It is written in third person perspective in Winny and Jack's voices ... the chapters are noted with the dates and voices.

The story is based on true experiences of home children.  There is a chapter at the end providing some history about what home children programs were all about.  It's hard to believe that until the late 1940s, up to 130,000 British children between the ages of three and eighteen were taken from England's streets, orphanages and homes and shipped to Canada, Australia and other countries.  Many were told that their parents had passed away or didn't want them anymore, which wasn't always true.  While some children did benefit from the arrangement, most didn't and were beaten and abused.  In 2017, a monument was erected in Park Lawn Cemetery here in Toronto honoring home children who are buried there.