Title: Lesia's Dream
Author: Laura Langston
# of pages: 255
Plot Summary:
Lesia Magus is a fifteen-year-old Ukrainian girl living in Shuparka, her village in the Province in Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Her family of peasants working for the landowner struggle to make ends meet. Europe is on the verge of World War I, and so they fear that what little land they possess will be taken away. Lesia and her brother, Ivan, believe that their only hope is to save enough money to immigrate to Canada. She dreams of wealth, including nearly-free land, and security.
Everyone in her family works hard to earn enough money to emigrate. Eventually, though, upon their arrival in Canada, they discover that racism looms and they have not entirely escaped from World War I.
Opinion:
Lesia's Dream was a touching tale that brought me to realize the difficulties some of the early Canadian immigrants faced. It was also interesting to read a story, which could have easily been a biography of a real family, that was related to the material I studied in my History courses in elementary school: when the Canadian government encouraged Eastern European farmers to settle in the West. Laura Langston's work was unique in that I have never read a book that followed the life of an immigrant family so closely. The way Lesia told it as if she were describing her past to her grandchildren in a letter was very emotional.
Lesia's Dream is highly recommended for those who enjoy reading historical fiction. Many of the events in the novel are factually accurate, and only the plot itself was from imagination based on those facts.
Target audience: Preteens and teenagers
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 4/5
Book review by Fiona T.
* 51 hours so far
Can be published in the Teen Newsletter
1 comment:
Hi, Fiona:
I loved this write up. I would be very interested in reading this book by your description.
You are correct. Many of the immigrants have faced many challenges such as bigotry and racism. They had so many other challenges to face, it is a shame to have something else. It is also unfortunate because we all came from somewhere and often people forget that they too, were once newcomers to Canada.
Catherine
P.S. Fiona, you now have 51 hours which is over your quota of the forty. You can keep going. I know we all enjoy your reviews.
Just thought I should mention this to you.
P.P.S. When you need me to write up your form, I need a couple of days to turn around the completed paper.
Post a Comment