Ellen: The Wishing Time. (Our Canadian Girl). Dorothy Joan Harris. Illustrated by Janet Wilson. Toronto, ON: Penguin Canada, 2004. 69 pp., pbk., $8.99. ISBN 0-14-301481-1. Subject Heading: World War, 1939-1945-British Columbia-Vancouver-Juvenile fiction. Grades 3-6 / Ages 8-11. Review by Gillian Richardson. ***1/2 /4 Reviewed from advance reading copy.

excerpt:

When Grandpa Sanders said, "Time for bed," it meant "Time for everyone to go to bed." He liked all the lights turned off by nine, to save on the electricity bill. Ellen closed her book regretfully and began to spread her bedding out on the chesterfield. Because there were only two bedrooms in the small house, Ellen had to sleep in the living room. But she couldn't help looking longingly at her book.

Grandpa Sanders saw that look.

"You might as well get used to turning out lights," he told her. "I wouldn't be surprised if they rationed electricity before long, now that there's a war on. We'll have to tighten out belts about a lot of things. They're going to be rationing gas and food for sure - I read that in the newspaper."

"Rationing food?" said Ellen.

"Yes. Tea and coffee and sugar - anything that's imported. Meat and butter, too, so the paper said."

Ellen changed into her nightgown and settled down on the chesterfield. She'd stopped saying - out loud, anyway - "I wish I had my own room, like in our old house." But she still thought it, every single night.

Ellen has more or less accepted the changes brought to her family by the Depression (see Ellen: Hobo Jungle) -- the loss of their house, the need to move in with grouchy Grandpa Sanders, having no money for extras like a ticket to the new colour movie, The Wizard of Oz. She wishes things would get better, and the onset of war in Europe seems to be the key. It brings a new, better paying job for her father, the ten cents she needs for a movie ticket, and a new friend, Marjorie, who recently escaped the Japanese invasion of China with her missionary parents. But Marjorie shuns Ellen's neighbour and friend, Amy Takashima, a Japanese Canadian, and Ellen begins to understand why the adults are so concerned about the war.

     This second story of Ellen and her family continues the short chapter style of the “Our Canadian Girl” series. The child-centred plot shows how confusing this period in history must have been for young people. The author has highlighted the disturbing events experienced by Canadians whose heritage made them targets of prejudice. In a tense scene, she offers a good lesson for young readers, for us all, with this innocent dialogue:

"Amy isn't a Japanese soldier. You can't blame her..." [Ellen].

"You played tag with me at school today," Amy pointed out. "I'm no different because I'm wearing a kimono."

     Ellen has evolved from the first book into a livelier character, thinking resentful thoughts about Grandpa Sander's rules and regulations, and actively defending her friend Amy. She finds a way to bring her two friends together by sharing the results of her own improving fortunes -- her wish to see The Wizard of Oz comes true -- as they wait out the war, safe in Canada.

Highly Recommended.

Gillian Richardson, who lives in Sorrento, BC, is a former teacher-librarian and a published children's writer of fiction and nonfiction.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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