The Home Children: Their Personal Stories. Phyllis Harrison, ed. Winnipeg, MB: J. Gordon Shillingford, 1979/2003. 196 pp., pbk., $16.95. ISBN 0-920486-15-0. Subject Headings: Socially handicapped children-Canada-Biography. Home children (Canadian immigrants) - Biography. Foster home care-Canada. Children-Employment-Canada. Grades 7 and up / Ages 12 and up. Review by Tom Chambers. **½ /4

excerpt:

My next assignment was to a place called Pontypool, Ontario, 13 miles north of Newcastle. It was a dairy farm rented by a husband and wife. A strange boy about 14 came there with me. We were allowed to go to school for about six months and then this man took us out of school to work full time on the farm. The wife was kind and gentle, but the husband was unscrupulous, vicious, dirty, and lazy. We were beaten every day or so for the smallest things. The wife would come to our rescue but she would only be cast aside by this crazed being. This man once put my friend on the big stove and held him there until his clothes began to burn. To this day I frequently have nightmares about this part of my life. In each case this brute appears and is endeavouring to grab me. I have a summer cottage about 75 miles north of Pontypool and I sometimes drive past this farm. Something seems to draw me back. These people have gone from there long ago. I did not try to keep track of them.

Between 1870 and 1930, more than 100,000 children from cities in Britain were sent to Canada to work on farms as part of the British Child Emigration Movement. Most came from impoverished families. A good number were orphans. Their passage to Canada, settlement, and general supervision were under the auspices of a number of British charities such as The Barnardo Homes who thought their lives would be better in Canada. For the majority it was. For others, life in the new land was harsh, full of hard work and with little love or schooling. This is their story, either told by the adult 'Home Children' themselves or by their family members.

     Phyllis Harrison, the book's editor, first became aware of this massive emigration of young children while working for the Ottawa Children's Aid Society. In order to learn more about the children and what happened to them in Canada, she wrote a letter asking those who were 'Home Children' to contact her. This letter was published in the Legion Magazine and forty Canadian newspapers. The responses she received are included in this book. It took her ten years to accumulate and edit the letters. Her book was previously published in 1979.

     This is a story that cried out to be told. It is a valuable piece of Canadian social history. Harrison is to be commended for her efforts in gathering the material and editing this book. If this had not been done, the stories of these children might have been lost forever. The Home Children is of particular value to children who will be fascinated to learn what life in rural Canada was like at this time and how immigrant children, with no families, were treated. The poor behaviour of many of the farmers towards their young charges will amaze and disturb them. It was brutal. That one child should have been beaten is bad enough. That many were is very disturbing. There were, of course, many kind and caring farm families, but what stands out most in Harrison's book is the ill treatment the 'Home Children' often received.

     A common theme in the memories of many of those who answered Harrison's appeal was the loneliness they felt on their journeys. Moving to a new country is a stressful experience for adults. It must have been doubly so for small children sent across the Atlantic, usually by themselves, without much understanding of where they were going. Thankfully, most conquered the loneliness, endured considerable hardship upon their arrival and adapted well to Canadian life. Today, there are estimated to be over one million descendants of the 'Home Children' in North America.

     The Home Children will be useful both as a text and for recreational reading. It is divided into twelve chapters according to years with a selection of letters from each time period included. Chapter 1, for example, covers the years from 1871-1885. Since it is composed of letters written by different people, there are many writing styles, but they do not detract from the book. All the letters are easy to read, straightforward accounts of the children's voyages to Canada and their experiences upon arrival. The book is not illustrated. The only teaching aid is an index of the charities, or 'Homes', in Britain and Canada that had roles in the moving and settling of the children.

Recommended.

Thomas F. Chambers, a retired college teacher, lives in North Bay, ON.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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