Once on This Island ANNOTATION
Twelve-year-old Mary and her older brother and sister tend the family farm on Michigan's Mackinac Island while their father is away fighting the British in the War of 1812.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
When war erupts between England and America in 1812, it brings change and uncertainty—even to Michigan’s remote Mackinac Island. For young Mary O’Shea, the hardest change is the departure of her father, who leaves Mackinac to join the American Army. With her sister and brother, Mary must tend the farm, deal with the hardships of British occupation, and hope for the safe return of their father. ‘The story, told with quiet humor, brings to life this episode in history. The readers feels the beauty of the island, the pain of separation, [and] the anxiety and fear produced by war.’—V. ‘[S]mooth writing, vivid characters, and strong sense of place make this a good choice for libraries and a treasure for ones in the Great Lakes area.’—BL.
Author Biography:
Gloria Whelan is a poet and the award-winning author of many books for young readers, including Homeless Bird winner of the National Book Award; Return To The Island; Once On This Island, winner of the Great Lakes Book Award; Farewell To The Island; and Miranda's Last Stand. She lives with her husband, Joseph, in the woods of northern Michigan.
FROM THE CRITICS
Children's Literature - Mary Sue Preissner
During the summer of 1812, life is nearly perfect on Mackinac Island. However, the tranquility is shattered when the war between American and England begins. Left alone while their father fights for the American cause, Mary O'Shea and her siblings must adapt to the innumerable changes around them. Brother Jacques is lured away by the fighting; sister Angelique is enamoured with a British officer; and her best friend Gavin is torn between the culture of his adoptive parents and the tribe he was born into. Whelan has woven a spirited tale about survival and growth.
Children's Literature - Deborah Zink Roffino
Tense and dramatic, poignant yet instructional, this is fine writing and storytelling, told in the first person by 12 year old Mary O'shea. The setting is Mackinac Island in the Great Lakes and the year is 1812. News travels slowly from the larger world, arriving by canoe or schooner to the small, close knit community of Irish, French and Indian settlers. The war with Great Britain threatens to tear a family apart over choices and loyalty.
The ALAN Review - Joan Nist
Author Gloria Whelan has taken a little-known area of the War of 1812 and brought to life the years of British occupation of Mackinac Island, where Lakes Michigan and Huron meet. The O'Shea family struggles to work the farm after their father leaves for the American army. Mary, twelve at story's start but a mature fifteen by book's end, labors with tasks on the land she loves. Older brother Jacques eventually leaves to become a fur trader, and older sister Angelique weds a British officer when peace comes. The book portrays the joys as well as hardships of the Great Lakes climate: "the green flags of seedlings told us we had won the battle of winter." Noteworthy is the sympathetic presentation of Indians, many of whom fought for the British, including Gavin, the young Indian orphan who resolves his divided loyalties and plans to return to Mackinac and Mary.
School Library Journal
Gr 4-7A novel set on Mackinac Island, Michigan, during the War of 1812. Mary, 12, recounts her family's plight as her father leaves his motherless children tending the farm while he joins the American forces in Detroit fighting the British. Jacques, 15, struggles to keep his promise to take care of the farm and his two sisters when the temptation to join the army or the fur trading business prevails. Sixteen-year-old Angelique's flirtations with the British soldiers during the occupation of their island home infuriates both her brother and sister. Despite these distractions, the young people still manage to maintain a productive farm for the three-year period of the war. Whelan weaves the Indian and American culture together through a complex secondary character, Gavin, an Indian boy raised by Mary's neighbors, who is forced to come to terms with his heritage as he makes the crucial decision to leave his Anglo parents and way of life and rejoin his tribe. Well-rounded fiction that incorporates a little romance, adventure, drama, and history of an American period that is not as commonly used for background.Rita Soltan, Baldwin Public Library, Birmingham, MI
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