Thursday, July 21, 2011

The Boston Box by Carmelita McGrath

It was over a year ago that Anna and I read The Boston Box by Carmelita McGrath.  Set in the 1930's in outport Newfoundland, it tells the story of a young girl named Mary.  Mary loved to dream big dreams, and while she's busy working hard helping the other women with the fish she dreams of what she will do with the money she earns.  However, when it comes time to get paid they discover that the price of fish has gone down and her money will have to be used to help the family with necessities.  Live is made a little easier by an annual box of surprises sent from an aunt in Boston.  The book is illustrated by Rochelle Baker and some of them are quite nice.  I especially liked the borders around the illustrations.

Anna was very young when we read this book together and it really was over her head.  I do plan on returning to this book again as part of our social studies.  It is a great book to use as a resource for learning about life in outport Newfoundland in the 1930s.

The book was actually one of the finalist is the Hackmatack awards in 2005 and they prepared a page with suggested learning activities to do with The Boston Box.

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