Boxcar Kid

By Norma Charles

In 1909, 13-year-old Luc Godin arrive in British Columbia from Quebec only to discover that the house they thought they'd move into hasn't been built. So the Godins have to make due with living in a railway boxcar with three other families. Luc's father and the many other newcomers to the Fraser Valley have come to work in the lumber industry. Their new home still has vestiges of the wilderness, and Luc and his family find find pioneering life difficult, especially as French speakers in a world of English. Luc's father, who becomes a teamster in one of the many lumber mills, is old-fashioned. Horses are what he knows, while Luc has an eye for the modern, particularly the new-fangled bicycles and occasional automobiles. However an accident with a bicycle has profound consequences for Luc and highlights the clash between the old and the new, the settled East and the brash frontier.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0092FOBZE
• ISBN13: 9781550027556
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Dundurn Press
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.27 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.3"
• Age Range: 12 to 15 years
• Grade Range: Grades 6 to 7

Customer Reviews

Written for Children but this adult loved it.

A great read. The story of the early B.C. lumber mills come to life with the arrival of laborers from Quebec. Young Luc and his family are among those who arrive and find there is no housing available. They quickly adapt and four families move into a boxcar for shelter from the rain. Luc's knowledge of English is the key to connecting the French lumbermen from Quebec and the English speaking manager's of the mill. Norma Charles helps us see the rain, mud and hardships through the eyes of Luc, a boy who inspires us with his ernest to do the right thing but gets caught up in a number of boyish mishaps. Norma Charles skillfully gives us a history lesson without us even knowing it and teaches us a few words of French along the way.