CM Magazine: Stand in the Wind.

________________ CM . . . . Volume XV Number 17. . . .April 17, 2009.

cover
Stand in the Wind.

Jean Little
Toronto, ON: Puffin Canada, 1975/2008.
243 pp., pbk., $8.99.
ISBN 978-0-14-316760-0.

Subject Headings:
Sisters-Juvenile fiction.
Summer-Juvenile fiction.

Grades 5-8 / Ages 10-13.

Review by Jean Nickel.

**½/4

excerpt:

Martha Winston had to sit on the suitcase to get it to shut. For once she was glad to be fifteen pounds overweight. As it was, she barely got the lid to close. Leaning over quickly, she snapped the catches into place. There! She had managed to squeeze in her sister Ellen's Guide to Canadian Birds. Ellen was going to be so busy entertaining the company that she wouldn't have spare time for bird watching.

"Besides, I'll be home from camp in a week," Martha muttered.

Even though she had talked of nothing but camp for days, it still amazed her that she was really going. She looked around the room she and Ellen shared when they were here at the cottage. She had slept here every summer as far back as she could remember. It seemed strange to be planning to spend a week in July somewhere else.

Stand in the Wind, which occurs in a simpler time, is about Martha and Ellen, two sisters in the Winston family. Martha is going to camp in order to make room in their house in town for the Swann sisters who are coming to visit. Before they arrive, Martha breaks her arm, and the camp refuses to let her come. The sisters talk their parents into letting them stay at the beach cottage with the Swann sisters, Rosemary and Christine.

     Rosemary appears to be a snob and Christine a mouse. Martha and Ellen, after meeting them, believe this is going to be a very long holiday. As the days progress, the two set of sisters find their rhythm. Martha pulls Christine or Kit, as she is called, into many activities from rescuing a bat, to feeding the gulls, to standing up to storms that terrify her. However, Martha still misses going to camp, and, as a result, Ellen and Rosemary plan a special surprise for Martha at the end of the holiday.

     Stand in the Wind is a good book for students who like relationship stories involving families. It brings back memories of warm days at the beach with family and friends. It is a story about courage and friendship that is just as relevant today as it was when originally published in 1975.Throughout the story, Little mentions the titles of similar stories that students might like to read, books such as Little Women and Winnie the Pooh.

     Jean Little loves to write. The author of more than forty books for children, Little has won numerous awards for her writing. Her awards include the Mr. Christie Book Award for Willow and Twig and the 1996 Violet Downey Book Award for His Banner Over Me. She lives in Guelph, ON.

Recommended.

Jean Nickel is a library technician at the Westglen School in Didsbury, AB.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364 Hosted by the University of Manitoba.

NEXT REVIEW | TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE- April 17, 2009.