The Broken Blade

In 1800, thirteen-year-old Pierre LaPage dreams of becoming a voyageur and paddling a fur trade canoe. But this is something that older, more experienced men do. However, when Pierre's father has an accident, Pierre signs on with the North West Company so that his family will have money to survive the winter. Life is hard for Pierre as the youngest member of his brigade. Treacherous rapids, blistered hands, aching muscles, and the cruel teasing of the older men make him miserable. But there is no turning back for Pierre, and he must endure the 1,000 mile journey from Montreal to Grand Portage.

My youngest is reading this for her school, so I figured why not? It’s not too long and I’m descended from voyageurs myself. I should find out what my legacy is.

The Broken Blade is meant to be a historical fiction/educational book in the same sense of Across Five Aprils. Our lead, Pierre, feels guilty for an accident that made his father resign from the yearly “march of the voyageurs” that brought them their livelihood. So he conscripts himself into their ranks and learns what its like paddling from Montreal to west Lake Superior. The heartache, the danger, the camaraderie, the enemies and friends made.

It’s a very clear Coming of Age story–the transition of the boy to a man. As you imagine, the female parts are extremely show more underwritten. I feel like some of the material was sanitized for younger readers. There is drinking and fighting, but no swearing or sex talk. I probably won’t read the following books in the series, but I’m glad I read this as it gave me a better understanding of the French-Canadian explorers and pioneers. show less

A pretty straight forward account of daily occurrances in the life of a voyageur, departing from Ontario & paddling to Grand Portage to bring supplies to the trading post and back with the traded furs. Expectations are for each crew member to carry their own weight without complaint. Blistered palms and aching muscles as the beginning of the trip gradually toughen up. Food supplies are pretty boring unless someone has time to hunt or fish en route. Teasing, fighting, and friendship between the crew members are all explored. A crew member is lost when his boat swamps in rough water. Pierre is proud to bring his earnings back home to his family, and is now willing to admit there is some value in getting an education so he can work in the show more business end of the fur trade rather than the dangerous & demanding transport.
While a 13-year old would be considered to young nowadays for the physical demands put on him, we must take the author's word that this is an accepted practice. show less

An engaging YA novel I would have enjoyed reading aloud to my boys when they were growing up. (We did a lot of historical read-alouds together in our home school.) I read it because I wanted to see how the author handled some of the era's historical detail, as my WIP follows the same route of the voyageurs from Montreal to Fort William. It was a good coming of age story fraught with adventure and some tragedy of the sort that was common among the voyageurs. I would really recommend adding this to your book list if you're a teacher or homeschooler wishing to share some of the is fur-trade era history with your students.

The setting is Montréal in 1800. Pierre La Page is a thirteen-year-old schoolboy, who's doing rather well. His father is a voyageur, one of the men who paddle cargo canoes from Montréal to Grand Portage, all the way on the northwest shore of Lake Superior. Well, Dad has an accident that will keep him from shipping out on the next cargo run. Motivated in part by guilt, Pierre skips class, heads down to the North West Company office and signs on as a voyageur to make the money that his father cannot. What follows is a coming-of-age tale as Pierre tries to follow in his father's footsteps. As adventures go, this one is relatively tame. In fact, I would have a hard time pinpointing what made me glad I checked this out. Maybe I just show more connected with Pierre, subconsciously recalling the times when I was a rookie starting a new job. Or maybe Mr. Durbin just did a good job of drawing me into the tale, so that I felt I was paddling along with the crew. Whatever it was, it worked.
--J show less

This adventurous story follows a young boy who is going on his first voyage in place of his father. He encounters many hardships such as the physical toll being a voyageur has on your body and mind, mean crew mates, and grief. But he also grows and finds out more about himself than he ever thought possible along the way. Join Pierre for the journey of a lifetime.

My nephew loaned me this book because he really loves it. I can see why. It's full of action, has great characters, lots of action, a good amount of history, and lots of action. Did I mention the action? It's pretty great.