REVIEW for The Glory Wind

Another thank you goes out to Fitzhenry & Whiteside for sending me this wonderful novel.

TITLE:                    The Glory Wind

AUTHOR:              Valerie Sherrard

GENRE:                  YA

RATING:                4 Stars

In full disclosure mode, I have to say that I love, love reading books published by Fitzhenry & Whiteside.  They are always publishing timely, entertaining and beautiful CANADIAN books, which are always, always a joy to read and review!

The Glory Wind is set in rural Ontario in the 1940's.  Now, I am not a small town girl and, of course, I was not born anywhere near that era, but I do know that everytime I read books set in that time period I pretty well always get the same reaction - anger.  Specifically, anger at how women were viewed and treated - the prejudice against them just irks me and I want to scream - "girl power".  So, this is pretty much my state of mind throughout the entire novel, considering the fact that our main character - Luke ends up being friends with a girl that he likes, who also happens to have a mother with a "questionable" past!  Grrrrrrr!

Fortunately, while this book does a great job of exploring just how small minded people in this area and time period really were, we also get, as a great contrast, to see how one boy, who believes in friendship is actually more human than most of the people in the town he lives in.

This book made me mad, mad, mad, but at the same time, it gave me hope.  Wonderfully written and full of beautiful images that I loved.