Counting on Hope

Hope and her family travel from England to their new home on an island off the coast of British Columbia in the 1860s. Hope thinks that she has arrived in paradise. She is right ... until whiskey traders arrive. Letia and her family are Lamalcha people who winter on Kuper Island and move to Wallace Island in the summer. The problem is that Letia's summer camp is on the island that the Crown has deeded to Hope's family. When the two girls meet, against the wishes of their mothers, their stories intersect. Set against the backdrop of the confusing events surrounding the English colonization of British Columbia, and an 1863 naval assault on Kuper Island, Counting on Hope tells the story of two girls whose lives are profoundly changed when their two cultures collide. Alternating between free verse and prose, Sylvia Olsen follows the girl's individual storylines before, during and after their meeting. She captures the wonder and joy with which Hope and Letia develop their friendship. She also describes the tragic events, suspicion, fear and confusion that characterize so many early encounters between Europeans and the First Peoples. Ultimately a story of hope, this sensitively drawn depiction of innocence lost and wisdom hard won follows Hope and Letia out of childhood, off their island paradise and into the complex realities of an adult world. Awards and Nominations City of Victoria Bolen Children's Literature Prize (Winner) - 2010 Chocolate Lily Award (Nominee) - 2010 Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize (Nominee) - 2010

Author: Sylvia Olsen
Publisher: Sono NIS Press
Published: 02/08/2022
Pages: 306
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.99lbs
Size: 8.98h x 6.72w x 0.81d
ISBN: 9781550391732
Audience: Young Adult

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 4.9
Point Value: 11
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 158995 / Counting on Hope


Review Citation(s):
Voice of Youth Advocates 08/01/2010 - Recommended - Readable

About the Author
Olsen, Sylvia: -

Sylvia Olsen is the author of many books and has been nominated for and won numerous awards. She has spent most of her life living in theTsartlip First Nation, where her children and grandchildren now live. Sylvia usually writes for children and young adults about the place between cultures where Canada's First Nations and settlers come together. She is also a storyteller who loves to work with young people to help them find their written and spoken voice. Sylvia is the mother of four and grandmother of seven. She lives in North Saanich near Victoria, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.sylviaolsen.ca.

This title is not returnable