By Anne Monaghan

This story briefly describes the unusual life of Emily Carr. The portrayal is quite sensitive in a number of ways. We see Emily's un-Victorian character as a little girl contrasted with her sisters' pious, prissy behaviour. Her attitudes toward Western Canada, the Native People and their culture are highlighted. It is clear that Emily preferred solitude, the bush and her pets to the pressures of being famous. It is too bad that there isn't a picture of one of her paintings.

I am pleased that this book introduces the reader to a determined woman and not simply a famous artist. We see how she struggled against her upper class family's values. She lived a life that was very different from most women in her day. As a single woman devoted to her painting, she lived in poverty for many years. She survived a narrow-minded art world and rejected a society that treated Native People with disinterest and disrespect.

This book was used by intermediate ESL students in a Reading and Writing class. They were impressed and referred to it as "the story of the pioneer woman artist."

A review by Ellea Wright, Toronto, Ontario