I found this Canadian treasure on the shelf at our OBCZ and I haven't read this one! How lucky can you get.

It did not have a BCID yet, so I've slapped in one of the pre-registered labels.

A big thank you to whomever donated it! I plan to read it and release it, likely for the next Canada Day challenge if not before.

This is as gentle and heartwarming a story as you could want. Set in what Roy calls Water Hen Country, it is the story of a large French Canadian pioneer family living on an island in a river in Northern Manitoba and, while they have no immediate neighbours, the people who touch their lives.

Roy herself taught in the Little Water Hen area of Manitoba for a year (I think it was in the late 1930's) and although this novel was written a decade later in France, one cannot help but feel that she had fond memories of that time and place, and of the people.

I am not sure whether it helps that I know the Manitoba landscape well, but I always get a clear and familiar sense of the countryside in which Roy's Manitoba characters live. Just as in *Children of My Heart* where I easily pictured the Riding Mountain area, I had no trouble at all and quite enjoyed, experiencing, through the seasons, the Tousignants' island in the river and the ducks puddling about.

Roy's characters are ordinary people, but at the same time they are quaint and colourful, hardworking, charming and almost always cheerful about what life throws them.

Silly me. At first I thought there was something odd and possibly "bad" about Luzina. What right-minded woman happily trots off on a yearly holiday leaving a passel of kids with their father, who no doubt has enough to do without child-minding and housekeeping duties too? How come he never gets a holiday? Well, I guess someone has to look after the kids and, as it happens, Luzina always brings home another when her shopping is done!

I love Luzina. As a mom, I was particularly charmed when she has to accept that her children belong not only to her but to the world and there comes a time when they do figure out (and too quickly)that it is not only mom who is interesting and who knows things. I laughed out loud when she refers to her children, of whom she is so proud, as "little devils" when they pay just a wee bit too much attention to Mademoiselle, their first school teacher. This as Luzina, herself, almost lets the cake burn as she listens in on the day's lessons.

I highly recommend this entirely delightful story.

This is my eight book read for the Canadian Book Challenge.

I plan to release it for someone else to enjoy, perhaps for gypsysmom's Canada Day challenge, or sooner. Manitoba Day is May 12th after all.

RELEASE NOTES:

I went hunting for one of LazyDaisy's releases and took this one along to release on my way. I hit the jackpot at the visitors' information cart by the lotteries kiosk. So if you go looking for A Certain Mr. Takahashi, maybe you'll find this book instead.

Enjoy!