This book lives up to the title with the focus being on one of the strongest needs of childhood - a safe shelter. A satisfying, well constructed novel. ( )

Lovely ( )

Shelter by Frances Greenslade
ISBN: 9781451661101
Starts out when Maggie was being told from her dad how to build a shelter. He used to work in Oregon but traveled north to BC to live off the land and avoid the Korean draft. He had come over from Ireland and had enough battles.
He knew many ways to make a shelter and she watched.
Scene at the homefront reminded me of when we first moved to the island-we had to carry our 5 gallon buckets of water up the hill 300 yards and we had no heat for the first several months, outdoor bushes for the bathroom.
After their fathers death they move to a camp where Irene, the mother cooks for those who come to camp. After summer they move in with a local woman who can do/fix anything. After a time they have to leave there and Irene puts the
kids in a home with friends of the family-The Edwards while she goes to the logging camps to cook. no kids allowed but her kids will be able to attend school.
When Ted develops cancer she spends time with him in the hospital where he's on morphine for the pain. He tells her all about her father. She and her sister now work after school and their mother's last letter stated she wasn't feeling very well.
They stopped receiving money after that.
Maddie plans a weekend trip to try to find her mother, along with her sister and meet up with some crazy people while hitchhiking.
When Jennie gets pregnant from a boy who's left the area. Bea makes a call and ships her out to a home for unwed mothers run by nuns.
She finally tracks down someone who knows Irene's past and divulges secrets to her in hopes it will lead her to find her mother...
Love all the descriptions about the meadows of flowers and other nature. Also learning what they used to keep the deer out of the garden, gonna have to try it.
Canasta talk is cool to read about. Quilt making and the patterns from the Indian tribe women. ( )

Read from Aug 14-16, 2012

It's interesting how what you choose to read works with or against what you just read. I read Among Others a couple of books ago -- also about sisters in the 70s. Of course, these two books aren't terribly similar, but when it comes to relationships, the sisterly dynamic is one I like to read about most.

Shelter's main character, Maggie, is a worrier. I immediately liked her! One that worries, I can always relate to that. We meet her family -- her mom, her dad, her sister -- and then things go bad. Her father dies and her mom abandons her daughters, but Maggie is tough.

I enjoyed the sense of place created by Greenslade -- rural British Columbia isn't really an area I knew anything about. And I definitely think this is a great book for discussion (especially for moms!). ( )

I thought this was extremely well written, and the characters were quite good. However, the ending felt rushed and abrupt, and spoiled much of the impact of the novel for me. ( )