A Prairie as Wide as the Sea : the Immigrant Diary of Ivy Weatherall /
Sarah Ellis.
- 1st ed.
- Markham, ON : Scholastic Canada, 2001.
- 205 p. : ill., maps ; 20 cm.
- Dear Canada .
"Ivy Weatherall is just 11 years old when her family leaves England for the promised riches of Canada's expanding West. They've come to join her uncle for the available land, the lush harvests, and the opportunity for success. But in Milorie, Saskatchewan, their dreams crumble into dust when they reach Uncle Alf's small sod hut and discover that jobs are scarce, and that they can barely make ends meet. Ivy's relatives pack up and head back to England, but to Ivy, Canada is full of wonder and beginning to feel like home. There are challenges in her new life, but Ivy's feisty character and her sense of wonder for a prairie as wide as the sea make her adventure one that readers won't easily forget. May 19, 1926. Somewhere between Maple Creek and Milorie. I am fit to burst. We are nearly there but it is taking forever. At Regina we switched trains to the mixed train. It stops every eight miles at a town. Things get unloaded and loaded up and people stand on the platform and talk and talk. This distance looks so little on the map but it is taking YEARS. Still May 19. We made it. I used to be: Ivy Doris Weatherall, 107 Halley Road, Forest Gate, London, England, Europe, The World, and now I'm: Ivy Doris Weatherall, Sec.1-6-26-W3rd, Uncle Alf's sod house, Five Miles from Milorie, Saskatchewan, Canada, North America, The World, The only thing the same is me and The World." (Book Cover)