Margaret Thompson - Eyewitness

EYEWITNESS YA historical novel (9 - 14)
	Extract: Some of the salmon betrayed the suffering of their long journey from the sea. They were blotched with white peeling patches like mildew blooms, their fins ragged and torn. Others were already turning red. Crows jostled each other in the trees, cawing excitedly. There was a shout from Chief Kwah, who seemed to be directing operations, and the first trap slid into the water. It was the beginning of a frenzy. The next few days passed in a blur of writhing silver bodies and orange flesh as the fish were scooped out of the water, gutted and opened out by the women, and spitted to dry or smoke. I staggered under poles laden with fish and collected the offal to feed my dogs. The entire world was made of fish; for a time it was all we could see and feel and smell. Fish scales glistened all over us, and the air was filled with alder smoke and the joyful cries of bird and man alike as they fell on the returning salmon in a passion of relief and gratitude. By the end of September, the fish cache held thousands of dried fish once again, the spectre of famine banished for another year.
"Try not to be a burden, Peter," is a father's parting admonition to his motherless son before vanishing into the winter of British Columbia's frozen north. Peter, alone in the world at the age of six, struggles with the cold and hardships of life in "the Siberia of the fur trade" at Fort St. James, the Hudson's Bay Company's main northern outpost for New Caledonia in the 1820s. His friendship with Cadunda, a Carrier boy his own age, and his relationship with the various employees at the Fort, support him as he deals with the long search for those responsible for the murder of two Company employees and struggles to make his way in the world. Told from a child's perspective, Eyewitness offers adventures rich in historical and cultural detail. We learn of life in the service of "la Compagnie" and of the Carrier people who taught the newcomers survival skills. The reader meets real historical people and events, including the young James Douglas and Amelia, his wife, Company Governor Sir George Simpson, chief trader James McDougall and Carrier Chief Kwah.
Study guide is available
Winner of a BC2000 Book Award	CCBC "Our Choice" designation, 2001
What the critics say: "In Peter Mackenzie, Margaret Thompson has created a living, breathing voice from the past. Eyewitness is a vividly woven story of adventure solidly based in historical fact. Thompson writes with eloquence and authority making this book a joy to read." Cora Taylor "Thompson's story is a moving, and historically accurate account of life in Fort St. James, in northern British Columbia, in the 1820s. This interesting and compelling book is a necessity for any studies dealing with the Hudson's Bay Company and the Fur Trade. It is an excellent source for teaching the difficulties of life for both the early fur traders and the native peoples of the north." Canadian Content Fall 2000 "In our view the book's three major strengths are its rich descriptive passages, its ability to capture what life must have been really like for a child at the time, and its ability to capture both the respect and tension that characterized the relationship between Canada's native people and the Europeans whose arrival changed the natives' way of life forever." David Mandzuk Faculty of Education; University of Manitoba Canadian Social Studies Fall 2000
ISBN: 0-921870-74-4 Ronsdale Press 3350 West 21st Avenue Vancouver, BC V6S 1G7 Email: ronsdale@shaw.ca $8.95
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EYEWITNESS YA historical novel (9 - 14)