sewn paper
Fiction
1992
120 pages
ISBN 0-88984-140-3
$10.95
Cover painting by
Patti Gallinger
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Author
Fire Ship
Marianne Brandis
Thirteen-year-old Dan Dobson and his family have just immigrated to
Upper Canada from the American States when the War of 1812 flares up.
Their neighbours in the town of York - today's Toronto - suspect them of
spying for the Americans, but the Dobsons are loyal to Britain and
determined to remain in York. Dan's dream is to sail with the British
frigate Sir Isaac Brock which he and his father are helping to build.
He sees war as an exciting adventure - that is until he gets his
first taste of battle on the day the American forces invade York.
Fire Ship is a fast-moving historical novel for young people that
brings the War of 1812 to life in a way that only Marianne Brandis can.
The attention to detail and acute historical sensibility that
so distinguished Brandis's `Emma' trilogy are in full evidence once
again. From the opening scene of Fire Ship in which
Dan paddles across the silent bay towards Toronto Island to the
graphic scenes of cannon fire and rough military doctoring in Fort
York, Brandis invites us to experience Toronto exactly as it was in
1813. She also introduces us to a strong new character in Dan who grapples
with issues of loyalty and nationality and the brutality of war. `The
story must work as a story; it must not be a sugar-coated history lesson,'
Brandis says of her approach to historical fiction, `my goal is to
give fiction the verisimilitude of fact, and to touch fact with the
colour and vivacity of fiction.'
`Marianne Brandis provides evidence of her usual meticulous research
in re-creating the lives of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary historical
events. There is plenty of substantiating detail about houses, food, clothing,
uniforms, the battle itself, and daily activities.
Fire Ship is a worthy addition to the growing number of
books for
young readers about the War of 1812.
Especially subtly done is Brandis' linking of the cries of
the recurring loon to the course of action, the association
of the great ship and natural phenomena, and the suggestion
of the war in microcosm in the tribulations of Dan's youngest
brother, George, at the hands of the Fitzgeralds.'
Canadian Children's Literature
Marianne Brandis is the author of the much-loved `Emma' trilogy - The Tinderbox, The Quarter-Pie Window, and The Sign of the Scales - originally published by the Porcupine's Quill, and now available from Tundra Books. The Porcupine's Quill also published Brandis's Rebellion: A Novel of Upper Canada in 1995.
