The Home Child by Liz Berry

 

In 1889, a law was passed in England that allowed the transfer of orphaned children to Canada as indentured servants.   Most were between the ages of seven and fourteen but some were as young as toddlers.  They were called home children.  In this beautiful book, Liz Berry tells the story of one such child, Eliza Stowell.  

Eliza is sent to a farmer's house whose wife is bed bound with illness.  She does all the cleaning and cooking, laundry, feeding of livestock and tends to the lady of the house.  She works from before dawn until there is no more light, only to fall into her bed and sleep, exhausted, until the next day.  It is a hard life where Eliza has nothing to call her own.  The family even changes her name to Lizzie.

Then a boy arrives, another indentured servant, another home child.  He is a few years older than Eliza and they form at first a friendship, then a love.  His are the only tender looks and touches Eliza ever gets but they are discovered and her love is sent away.

Liz Berry is a prize-winning poet and she has told this story in verse.  The poems tell of the voyage over, the longing for Eliza's mother and brothers, her loneliness and her joy in finding a love.  It tells the story of the home children, a program that sent over one hundred thousand children to another country.  It is estimated that ten percent of Canada's population are descendants of those who were forcibly emigrated.  The poems are written with use of dialect and they bring Eliza to life in a way that few characters are drawn.  Eliza is based on Liz Berry's great aunt, Eliza, who was a participant in the story and lost to the family that remained behind.  This gorgeous book is recommended for literary fiction readers.