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Book summary
When 12-year-old Janet’s village is under threat– she decides to take action. It’s a split-second decision that could cost her everything: her home, her family – even her life.
Can Janet save her village from being wiped out? Or will her family and friends be forced from their homes to face an uncertain future?
Based on real life events, Fir for Luck is a tale of the brutal Highland Clearances, when land owners cared more about sheep than people.
Nayu's Thoughts
This is a story based on history in Scotland, a hard read full of trials and the occasional bit of humour. If you love animals, especially cats, I advise not reading the cat incident. I was too curious, even though I felt it would be horrid, and it was. I was too shocked to cry, and felt a bit sick (I had just eaten some yummy cake too since the book isn't a fluffy bunny read). I don't have words for that part of the story.
As for the rest, it's gloomy, but Jenny does all she can to save her village. She is plucky, and as she discovers she isn't alone in her courage. I felt desperately sad for her grandmother who was having to relive her past, something that's told in flashback chapters. The end is happy and had me excited for Jenny's future, a future that she wouldn't have had if she wasn't stubborn and rebellious. Her own mother and grandmother have their own inner strengths which she gets to see and is proud of, even if they do berate her behaviour frequently.
Janet stands firm against negative attitudes to what she's doing from a few snobby villagers, who she ends up helping a little because it's the right thing to do, She struggles with being an obedient girl, as society would like her to be, but her sometimes rash actions make an enormous different to her village. Her life is in danger several times, not all from what I expected either, but shows how dangerous life was without hospitals in rural areas in the 19th century.
It's not a book I personally can reread, as it's so hard hitting, but it's one I'll remember for a long time to come. Including the cat part-giving my cat a huge hug when I next see her!
Find out more on Barbara's website, and find out a bit more in Barbara's guest blog post below!
When 12-year-old Janet’s village is under threat– she decides to take action. It’s a split-second decision that could cost her everything: her home, her family – even her life.
Can Janet save her village from being wiped out? Or will her family and friends be forced from their homes to face an uncertain future?
Based on real life events, Fir for Luck is a tale of the brutal Highland Clearances, when land owners cared more about sheep than people.
Nayu's Thoughts
This is a story based on history in Scotland, a hard read full of trials and the occasional bit of humour. If you love animals, especially cats, I advise not reading the cat incident. I was too curious, even though I felt it would be horrid, and it was. I was too shocked to cry, and felt a bit sick (I had just eaten some yummy cake too since the book isn't a fluffy bunny read). I don't have words for that part of the story.
As for the rest, it's gloomy, but Jenny does all she can to save her village. She is plucky, and as she discovers she isn't alone in her courage. I felt desperately sad for her grandmother who was having to relive her past, something that's told in flashback chapters. The end is happy and had me excited for Jenny's future, a future that she wouldn't have had if she wasn't stubborn and rebellious. Her own mother and grandmother have their own inner strengths which she gets to see and is proud of, even if they do berate her behaviour frequently.
Janet stands firm against negative attitudes to what she's doing from a few snobby villagers, who she ends up helping a little because it's the right thing to do, She struggles with being an obedient girl, as society would like her to be, but her sometimes rash actions make an enormous different to her village. Her life is in danger several times, not all from what I expected either, but shows how dangerous life was without hospitals in rural areas in the 19th century.
It's not a book I personally can reread, as it's so hard hitting, but it's one I'll remember for a long time to come. Including the cat part-giving my cat a huge hug when I next see her!
Find out more on Barbara's website, and find out a bit more in Barbara's guest blog post below!
Historical Fiction and Modern Kids by Barbara Henderson
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| Fir tree leaves |
My story Fir
for Luck is set almost 200 years ago. How on earth, I wondered, could I make
modern young people care about something that happened so long ago, in a
society so very different from ours?
I tried
different approaches at the beginning, playing about with different points of
view, tenses, structures, but in the end it boiled down to this: I wanted the
true story of Ceannabeinne village, its resistance to the Highland Clearances
and its defiance of authority, to be told from a child’s point of view.
One of the
things which had first fascinated me about these events was the fact that the
eviction document was sent at a time when the Master knew all the men would be
away. He must have assumed it would be easy to subdue a bunch of women and
children, but he didn’t reckon on the strength and resolve of these characters
who overwhelmed the servant of the law and forced him to burn the eviction
document - the writ. My main character, I decided, had to be a girl. More than
that, she had to be a spirited girl who riled against the constraints placed on
her. A rebel.
The character
of Janet began to form in my mind. How could I make it easier for modern
readers to identify with someone so unlike them externally? By creating a lot
of common ground internally, I
thought. I could not change the historical setting, but as I have said before,
I could change the lens through which
we view it. First person story-telling would remove some of that distance. By
choosing present tense, I removed one more barrier – the reader would now
experience everything Janet experienced, as it was happening.
I am well aware
that the writing community is split on this issue – there are some who favour
present-tense storytelling while others abhor it. In the end, I decided to
write in a way which would feel most natural to me and tried not to worry about
what publishing officials would think.
Once the
flashback strand was completed, I decided to set it apart, not only in italics
but through a past tense narration, It creates a little bit of distance between
readers and Anna, and probably protects young people from identifying with the
cruellest, grittiest parts of this tale, allowing them to focus on Janet
instead.
In Fir for Luck, I tried to aim for a faster pace than
I had seen in classics like The Desperate
Journey, to appeal to a modern audience, and short, punchy chapters should
hopefully keep a modern young audience more engaged.
But the most
effective way of making Fir for Luck
appeal to modern readers was nothing to do with me.
Kids hear that
they should never judge a book by its cover, but we all do it. Now, some sort
of old-fashioned image of a child in period costume would immediately
communicate distance to modern readers. That character is nothing like me, they
might think.
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| Nayu: There's more to the cover than I realised! |
By focusing on
the character of Janet, and zooming in so closely on her face in the cover,
Cranachan’s in-house designer has created a common bond. Janet does not look
remote. The cover, in some sense holds up the mirror image to a modern reader,
challenging them: Look at me! I may have
lived two hundred years ago, but look. I’m not so very different from you. The
fire in my eye hints at the threat, it flags up the stakes. It could happen to
you, as it it did to us.
Combining that
simple design with modern narrative style and pace I hope that it will enable a
modern reader to care about Janet, about her world and her plight. The history
may be old, but the story should feel fresh, edgy and relevant.
I’ll soon see
what modern readers make of it. And that makes me just a tiny, little bit
nervous…
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