Norma M. Charles

Criss Cross Double Cross (subtitled Sophie Alias Star Girl to the Rescue), by Norma Charles, is a children's book, a sequel to one called Sophie Sea to Sea. Sophie is 10 years old, a French-Canadian girl whose large family has been transplanted from Montreal to a town in rural British Columbia. The year is 1949, and Sophie is an exuberant girl who is always getting into scrapes, and who takes as her role model a comic book heroine, Star Girl. After spending the last few months of the last school year at a local public school that is ruled by the snobby Elizabeth Proctor, Sophie is delighted when a French parochial school opens and she is sent there for her fifth grade classes - not only is there no snooty Elizabeth, but everybody speaks French, just as she does at home! Alas, soon there is trouble in the new school when the provincial government sends an unreasonable tax bill and the teachers go on strike, sending the children back to the public schools once again, and Sophie is once again in Elizabeth Proctor's sights....Not a bad book, but honestly, not very interesting either, although I was curious as to whether the anti-Francophone racism was accurate to the time - I think it may well have been. This might appeal to young girls, around 8 or 9, but I'm not sure that long-ago time period would attract their attention very much, and Sophie's adventures are really very tame.… (more)