Promise Song (NY City Library's 1998 Books for the Age of Ten Se)
Grade 6-9.  Holeman's offering is full of the suffering and hard work of frontier life. Rosetta and her sister, Flora, once lived lives of ease, but the death of their parents has left them in an English orphanage. Sent to Canada, the girls anticipate being adopted by a loving family, but the younger Flora is rapidly grabbed up, and the older girl is sent to an isolated farm. Albert and Runa need Rosetta's labor and make it clear that she is under contract to earn her keep. There's more melodrama here than required, but as time passes the main characters become less cardboard. Runa is suffering from the deaths of her babies, and while Albert's gruffness and cold heart never disappear, readers do get glimpses of a softness and humanity that he himself thinks of as weakness. A harrowing depiction of an attack on Rosetta's virtue by a hired hand may cause concern, but the author carefully makes the threat obvious without graphically depicting it, and Rosetta is able to protect herself and escape. Although not as good as Luanne Armstrong's Annie (Orca, 1995), this novel will engage readers, especially those who enjoy shedding a few tears over obvious injustices. Rosetta's pluck and determination make her an admirable heroine, and the story is exciting. Maybe not a "read it and weep," but a likely "read it and sniffle."?Carol A. Edwards, Minneapolis Public LibraryCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.