As Kit Pearson’s Depression-era novel begins, Polly and Maud are newly orphaned. Their father has just drowned, and their mother died before nine-year-old Polly was old enough to remember her. The two are now travelling by train from Winnipeg to B.C., where they will live with relatives on an island situated between Vancouver and Victoria. Although Polly and Maud have never met them, their new family welcomes them with open arms. Read more…