The Tinderbox - Softcover

Brandis, Marianne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0887766269 ISBN 13: 9780887766268

Publisher: Tundra Books, 2003

Synopsis

Flames are bright against the night sky. Thirteen-year-old Emma watches with horrified fascination as they consume the family’s log cabin, leaving her and her younger brother orphaned. These three books are set in the early 1830s. Emma’s grief and shock, and her bravery in building a new life, are timeless.

Marianne Brandis’s vivid evocation of pioneer life in Upper Canada – the texture of the log cabin, the sights and smells of harvest, the raw cold of outdoor chores at dawn – has been delighting readers since the first book was first published in 1982.

About this title

About the Author:

Marianne Brandis fell in love with the English language when, as a child, she arrived in Canada from the Netherlands. She began writing in her teens, and continued while working as a copywriter at private radio stations and the CBC. She taught at Ryerson University for many years, before becoming a full time writer. She has won many awards including the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People and the IODE Book Award.

G. Brender à Brandis was born in Holland and came to Canada when he was five. He has a Fine Arts degree from McMaster University. His work is included in both public and private collections, and public and university libraries in Canada and the United States.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-7-Brandis descriptively reflects the rustic pioneer life of early-19th-century Upper Canada. A devastating house fire leaves 13-year-old Emma Anderson and her younger brother, John, orphans, and they go to stay with neighbors. Their destiny takes a different path when Mrs. Harriet McPhail arrives claiming to be a distant aunt and executor of their father's will. The idea of Mrs. McPhail's city life in York is at first intriguing to Emma, yet the woman's strict, confident, and condescending attitude presents a formidable challenge to the young teen. At the same time, Isaac Bates, a boy from a neighboring farm, has expressed interest in marrying her, thus offering her the opportunity to maintain her homestead life. The choice is both frightening and exciting to Emma. Brandis has focused on her protagonist's emotional dilemma, intertwining feelings of grief, fear, uncertainty, and ambition through various thought processes and frank conversations with her only confidante, neighbor Granny Wilbur. Emma is successful in verbally confronting her aunt and demanding certain written guarantees in terms of finances. A mild level of suspense is maintained throughout as Mrs. McPhail is continually portrayed as somewhat sinister and dishonest, yet nothing is ever proven, leaving one to wonder what the children will encounter when they arrive in York in the sequel. Chapter headings include engravings of forthcoming scenes. This story is somewhat engaging, and adds to the plethora of historical series already on the shelves.--Rita Soltan, Oakland University, Rochester, MI
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About this edition

• Publisher: Tundra Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0887766269
• ISBN 13: 9780887766268
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176