Town House, Country House: Recollections of a Quebec Childhood - Tapa dura

"I asked three of my grandchildren to read the first few chapters, and asked them if they would like to read more of it. A unanimous 'yes'." Elizabeth Waterston, Department of English, College of Arts, University of Guelph.

The story begins in autumn 1872 with Julie's school days and takes us through Christmas and the building of a snow fort at the foot of the Citadel in Quebec City. During Easter week there is the marvellous annual sleigh trip to the sugar bush near Montmorency where the children eat fresh maple syrup, cooled by being poured onto the snow. In early spring, Henri joins a log drive and sees a log jam freed by dynamite. Come summer, the family goes by river boat up the St Lawrence to their summer home near Pointe Platon on the Seigneury de Lotbiniere, sixty kilometres north of Quebec City. While on the family seigneury the children find an old-fashioned flat-bottomed boat which they name the Rancid Butter because of the smell it has before they clean and fix it. They visit their father's sawmill and take an exciting trip on a huge raft which had come down from Trois-Rivieres in a storm. Summer is brought to a close with a thrilling climax during the return trip down the St-Lawrence. Town House, Country House will charm all who pick it up, whether young or old. For younger readers, the story is clear and wonderfully intriguing. For those of us who are not so young, it has a fine sense of rhythm and a story so enchanting as to make us almost forget, despite the rich and vivid detail of post-confederation Quebec, that we are looking into history. Jean Francois Belisle's line drawings, which accompany the text, are splendidly evocative of the mood and setting of Town House, Country House.