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Synopsis
Canadian Children's Book Centre, Our Choice selection
- They had been heading to Batoche when the storm struck. A few hours more and they might have made it. Then the wagon lurched to one side. James tumbled out. He shouted to his parents, but the wind stole his words away. His mother turned in her sleep as the wagon disappeared into the swirling whiteness.
During a fierce prairie storm, James falls out of his family's wagon and his calls for help are lost in the howl of the wind. After his parents vanish into the blizzard, a man on horseback appears and takes James to the safety and warmth of his small cabin. The man will only say that his name is Louis. While he prepares an evening meal of gallette, Louis promises to teach James how to make it in the morning. When he does, James declares his mother makes the same type of bread but she calls it "bannock," not "gallette," underscoring the differences and similarities between their cultures.
This imaginary encounter between Louis Riel and a young boy brings to light how insignificant the differences between people are and the tragic consequences of not remembering how much we all share. The historical context for the story is found in the Afterword. On the last page of the book there is an easy recipe for gallette/bannock.
Children's Literature
Louis Riel remains a controversial figure in nineteenth-century Canadian history. An educated Métis, he led a movement to gain rights to land that the Métis had been living on; the movement culminated in a battle near Batoche, in Saskatchewan, which the Métis lost. Riel went into hiding but soon turned himself in, was tried and executed. This information is contained in an afterword, putting into historical context an imaginary encounter between Riel and a young boy, James, who is traveling with his parents in a covered wagon when they are engulfed in a snowstorm. As the wagon lurches, James falls out unnoticed, and the storm blows away his cries for help. Along comes a man on a horse who takes him to his cabin, where they wait out the storm baking bread (gallette to Louis, bannock to James) and form a friendship despite their differences. Competent color paintings capture the fury of the storm and the prairie's vast beauty, and put a kind face on the man who was convicted as an enemy of the country. 2001, Stoddart, . Ages 7 to 11. Reviewer: Susan Stan