description: Rose Dunlea is slow. At least that is what she being constantly told by the Sisters at school in Halifax during the early 1900s. She’s been held back twice now and if she fails again, next year she’ll be in the same class... (show all) as Winnie, her younger sister. Although the war against Germany seems far away – her most pressing fears are the words that inexplicably tumble together on the page whenever she tries to read them. They don’t make sense to her. Isolated from her schoolmates and ashamed of her inability to read, Rose tries to escape into her Mam’s Irish Chain quilt, a handmade emblem of the family’s past laden with love. But when that doesn’t help, Rose desperately prays to God so that she doesn’t have to go to school anymore. Exactly one day later on December 6, 1917, two ships explode in Halifax’s harbor, resulting in the greatest human tragedy Canada has ever seen. Rose’s life changes forever – and she’s sure it’s all her fault. A stunned and grief-stricken Rose draws on the heroic stories of her great-grandmother stitched into the Irish Chain quilt to find her own courage and inner strength. Irish Chain is a beautifully moving story about awakening the gifts within.
language: English
title: Irish Chain
titlecomplete: Irish Chain
genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Middle Grade, School, Historical, Childrens, Canada, Read For School, Fiction
ratings_count: 175
places: Halifax, Nova Scotia
awards: awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award
publisher: HarperCollins Canada, Limited