Martha Brooks

Here’s a gem! Noreen’s none too nice. She steals her boyfriend’s truck and his money and takes off without much thought except for her own narrow, selfish needs. She lands in Pembina Lake and proceeds to wreak havoc in this small, prairie town. Dogs are not safe. Cabins burn. Trouble follows. And it doesn’t seem to matter whether Noreen’s motives are good or bad for trouble to follow her. Why should she even bother? The town people, Lynda Bradley, Dolores Harper, and Del Armstrong, show more don’t have much to offer. Lynda owns a ramshackle café well past its prime that serves as a metaphor of her own life. Dolores doesn’t have the energy anymore to be that meddler for Jesus. And Del is still haunted by the ghost of his drowned brother. Call it chemistry or fate or luck, but this unlikely medley of souls bumbles its way into a relationship that works, a relationship that may even transplant some heart back into Noreen. This book has already won Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award; it is sure to walk away with more awards this year. This one is a MUST READ. show less

Queen of Hearts is an honest and touching account of life in a sanatorium as seen through the eyes of a French-Canadian teenage girl during the World War II years. Marie-Claire and her two younger siblings are put into a sanatorium in southern Manitoba after contracting tuberculosis from their uncle, who had succumbed to the illness. Marie Claire must deal with worry and fear for her sister and brother, despair about her own situation, and anger with her parents’ inability to cope with the show more tragic situation.

In the sanatorium, Marie Claire’s constant companion is Signy, a needy girl that she befriends with great difficulty. In the development of this relationship, Brooks examines the obligations, pains and awkwardness of friendship as well as the joys. In an environment where people are slowing dying, friendship necessarily encompasses a range of emotions, including not so pleasant ones like pity, revulsion and guilt. Yet, in this bleak environment, there is also happiness, love, and even hope for a future life outside this tiny enclosed world. show less

Great historical fiction/coming of age entry by Martha Brooks. Marie-Claire and her younger brother contract tuberculosis during World War II in Manitoba, Canada. Sent to a sanitarium to heal, they are separated from their family and even each other. In those days, antibiotics had not been discovered which could cure TB, so treatments like sleeping outdoors in the bitter cold and collapsing a lung to rest it were common. Marie-Claire is sick, angry with her father for his emotional distance, show more and determined not to become friends with long time patient Signy, her roommate. This story is about her journey to health, to friendship, and to first love, all in a hospital bed or not far from it.

Marie-Claire’s emotions ring true. She is dealing with very challenging circumstances we readers feel all of her sadness, despair, excitement and hope. This book provides a window into what TB sufferers faced, and a greater understanding of the disease itself – that it is not as quickly contagious as one might think, and that healing from it is not always a fixed and clear path. Sadly, TB is on the rise again as drug resistant strains take hold, which the author explains in her Author’s Note at the beginning of the book. She provides detail about her sources in the Acknowledgements, noting that she lived near one herself as a child. show less

A very sweet book about a period of history that is all but forgotten - when tuberculosis almost always meant a lingering death. Interestingly, while this coming-of-age narrative brings in the expected elements of young love, it also places an emphasis on friendship over the impermanent thrill of romance - something not often seen in YA literature, and especially not in books directed at girls. While many references might be lost on non-Canadians and people who don't live in the American show more communities near the Northern border, it is still a good read for teen girls, and an excellent book for the summer. show less