The Girl on Evangeline Beach
Michael Denshaw's life is hanging in the balance. After a severe beating by thugs at school, his body is left broken and bleeding on an abandoned set of railroad tracks. As he slips into a coma, Michael's world splits in two and he is given a second chance at life.\ He finds himself in Nova Scotia, in a time just before the deportation of the Acadians. There, he meets a beautiful girl named Marie, and begins to fall in love with her. Life seems idyllic, but Michael knows that tragedy looms,...
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Michael Denshaw's life is hanging in the balance. After a severe beating by thugs at school, his body is left broken and bleeding on an abandoned set of railroad tracks. As he slips into a coma, Michael's world splits in two and he is given a second chance at life. He finds himself in Nova Scotia, in a time just before the deportation of the Acadians. There, he meets a beautiful girl named Marie, and begins to fall in love with her. Life seems idyllic, but Michael knows that tragedy looms, for he has encountered Marie before - as a ghost on a lonely stretch of beach back in his own time.Michael soon learns that his fate is inexplicably entwined with Marie's, and that to save his own life, he must first save hers. The Girl on Evangeline Beach is a wonderful coming-of-age adventure set against one of the most tragic occurrences in Canadian history.Children's LiteratureThe author's first novel finds twelve-year-old Michael Denshaw on a road trip with his grandfather in present day Nova Scotia when he sees what appears to be the ghost of a young girl walking on the beach calling to him. Upon his return home, visions of the girl and an ancient Acadian village cloud his mind and interfere with his schoolwork. When Michael is beaten up and left for dead on the town's railroad tracks, he struggles to live in the present. As he slides into a coma, however, he awakens in 18th century French Acadia, a small town in Nova Scotia on the verge of being stripped of its occupants. Soon after his arrival, Michael meets Marie, the ghost girl on the beach, and is quickly taken into her family. The townspeople believe Michael is a spy from Boston sent to gather information for the English soldiers. Michael finds himself struggling to save his own life as he fights to protect Marie and her family. The juggling of 18th century French and present day English languages gives an authentic feel for the characterization of the individuals. Anne Carter's research draws a vivid picture of life in Grand-Pré, Acadia through the use of intricate details of the area entwined with a believable plot. The author's underlying theme, that family togetherness outweighs possessions, is one that children of all ages will recognize. 2000, Stoddart Kids, $7.95. Ages 10 to 14. Reviewer: Dawn R. Chase
\ Children's LiteratureThe author's first novel finds twelve-year-old Michael Denshaw on a road trip with his grandfather in present day Nova Scotia when he sees what appears to be the ghost of a young girl walking on the beach calling to him. Upon his return home, visions of the girl and an ancient Acadian village cloud his mind and interfere with his schoolwork. When Michael is beaten up and left for dead on the town's railroad tracks, he struggles to live in the present. As he slides into a coma, however, he awakens in 18th century French Acadia, a small town in Nova Scotia on the verge of being stripped of its occupants. Soon after his arrival, Michael meets Marie, the ghost girl on the beach, and is quickly taken into her family. The townspeople believe Michael is a spy from Boston sent to gather information for the English soldiers. Michael finds himself struggling to save his own life as he fights to protect Marie and her family. The juggling of 18th century French and present day English languages gives an authentic feel for the characterization of the individuals. Anne Carter's research draws a vivid picture of life in Grand-Pré, Acadia through the use of intricate details of the area entwined with a believable plot. The author's underlying theme, that family togetherness outweighs possessions, is one that children of all ages will recognize. 2000, Stoddart Kids, $7.95. Ages 10 to 14. Reviewer: Dawn R. Chase\ \ \ \ \ School Library JournalGr 7-10-While lying in a coma after being beaten by two thugs, Michael Denshaw, 16, time travels to Grand-Pr , Nova Scotia, in 1755, just months before the deportation of the Acadians. There he finds Marie, who had appeared to him as a ghost when he and his grandfather visited nearby Evangeline Beach, and learns that his mission is to save Marie from the same thugs who attacked him. Michael spends several months with her family, although his present-day coma lasts only a few days. He gains maturity and falls in love with Marie, who disappoints him by choosing Fran ois, the man her mother feels she is destined to marry. When the young woman's father leaves with a delegation to plead the Acadians' cause to the English in Halifax, Michael knows that its members will not return. The protective attitude he then begins to take toward Marie's entire family, knowing their community's tragic fate, helps him not only to find the way to save Marie and Fran ois but also to begin to accept his own father's death four years earlier. Carter's detailed, knowledgeable portrayal of Acadian life makes the bulk of this book a fine historical novel. The depiction of Michael as an angry teen is realistic and believable, but linking the two aspects of the novel through the device of time travel seems superimposed on the historical fiction. Fantasy fans drawn to this book will probably be disappointed.-Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.\ \
