The Family Way
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$14.95Tulia May lives in rural Nova Scotia with her mother, who works in the laundry of the nearby Ideal Maternity Home. It’s a place where unwed mothers can discreetly give birth, a place where adoptions by rich Americans can be quickly arranged. Tulia doesn’t think about the workings of the home much; mostly she hates being roped in to helping scrub the endless diapers. Her friend Finny Paul has suspicions that the home is holding sinister secrets—the worst being that unadoptable babies are being buried in butterboxes—but Tulia thinks he’s being ridiculous. When Tulia’s sister Becky ends up in the home, Tulia truly starts to consider Finny’s concerns. And when she and Finny discover what’s really going on there, she knows she has to act quickly to keep Becky’s baby safe.
Based on the true story of the Ideal Maternity Home, and its tragic Butterbox Babies, The Family Way is a thoughtful and engaging exploration of family and of Nova Scotia’s history. A stand-alone middle-grade novel, it also serves as a prequel to the critically acclaimed Cammie novels, Flying With a Broken Wing and Cammie Takes Flight.
Good Mothers Don’t
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95It’s 1960 and Elizabeth is slowly coming apart. Her reality is splintering and she wants to harm her children. Fifteen years later, Elizabeth is desperately trying to fill in the gaps electric shock therapy has left in her memory. She longs to find her children and explain that she never meant to leave for so long. A moving exploration of illness, memory, and how we fight for who we love.
Cammie Takes Flight
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Eleven-year-old Cammie Turple grew up with more obstacles than most. Visually impaired and abandoned by her parents, she was raised by her tenacious, bootlegging aunt in rural Tanner, Nova Scotia. After Cammie and her best friend, Evelyn Merry, destroy the local moonshine still, forcing Evelyn’s abusive, alcoholic father to sober up but nearly killing Evelyn in the process, Cammie convinces her aunt to send her to the Halifax School for the Blind.
The anticipated follow-up to Flying with a Broken Wing, Cammie Takes Flight finds Cammie navigating life at her new school, armed with an envelope with her estranged mother’s address on it. Unsure if she can trust her new friend, Nessa, Cammie enlists her help in tracking to help track her mother down. Will Cammie finally learn why she was abandoned and be able to start her new life? Or will she find too many secrets to count, and realize that she might never put the past behind her?
A heartfelt coming-of-age story, Cammie Takes Flight explores the values of perseverance, unlikely friendships, and what it means to be a family.
Flying With a Broken Wing
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Cammie Deveau began life with a few strikes against her. She’s visually impaired, abandoned by her mother at birth, her father was a casualty of the Second World War—and if all that isn’t enough, she’s being raised by her bootlegging aunt. No wonder she dreams of starting a brand new life.
When Cammie learns about a school for blind and visually impaired children she becomes convinced a new life is waiting for her in Halifax, but how will she ever convince her aunt to let her go? With the help of her best friend, they devise a plan to blow up the local moonshiner’s still. But Cammie has not managed to change her luck, and things get worse than she ever imagined.
Bitter, Sweet
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$10.95Pru Burbidge lives a simple life on the family homestead on Dalhousie Road in 1940s rural Nova Scotia- until her father abandons the family and her mother falls ill. Her life is turned upside-down by these events, and she is forced to take on the role of primary caregiver to her siblings, Jessie, Flora, and Davey. Things go from bad to worse when Pru’s mother dies, leaving Pru and Jessie, her older brother, to care for the family in secret so they are not separated and sent away to foster homes, or worse- the orphan house. Pru and Jessie do everything they can to hide the fact that their mother has passed away and keep the family together, but their situation becomes increasingly dire as their money and food supplies begin to run out and their neighbours start getting suspicious. When the situation comes to a head and they are on the verge of being found out, Pru and her siblings must work together to save their family from being torn apart.
