Starred Review ALA Booklist (Sat May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

Starred Review In the summer of 1954, Ellie's grandma reluctantly agrees to look after 10-year-old Ellie in Saskatchewan so that her dad can take a job as a traveling salesman. Ellie's mother died on the day that Ellie was born, and Grandma blames Ellie for her death. Grandma is as mean as the evil stepmother character in a classic fairy tale, but this moving novel is far from fantasy; it is its realism that makes it so powerful. Quiet as a mouse, Ellie does her chores, but there is nothing that she can do right in Grandma's eyes, and she feels sad, lonely, and imprisoned. Many kids will recognize the sorrow and difficulty of living with a hostile, bitter relative. Ellie tries to pretend that Grandma loves her, and once or twice, Grandma does soften, but not for long. Ellie's uncle says that Grandma's grief has made her hard; her only way of dealing with loss is to shut everyone out. The girl next door, a spoiled, bossy brat, offers some levity, but true to Ellie's viewpoint, the spare first-person narrative tells a heartbreaking family story with no mushy reconciliation. There is nothing between Ellie and Grandma except "prairie dust and heat and silence," but relief does arrive when Dad returns for Ellie at last.

School Library Journal Starred Review (Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2011)

Gr 3-6 "I could tell right away that this wasn't a house that wanted me." Thus, readers are introduced to nine-year-old Ellie. It's the 1950s in Saskatchewan, and Ellie's father is down on his luck and has had to take a job as a traveling salesman. He has no choice but to leave his daughter with his dead wife's mother—an embittered woman made vitriolic by her resentment and anger. She hadn't consented to the marriage and blames her son-in-law for her daughter's death when Ellie was an infant. Unmarried Uncle Roger, who runs the farm, has had his struggles in life too, but unlike his mother, his disappointments have honed kindness in him. Ellie does her best to please Grandmother Acklebee and to hide her feelings when her efforts go unrewarded. However, she does forge a tender relationship with her uncle. Over time, Grandmother Acklebee begins to soften (almost imperceptibly), and Ellie starts to accept that the woman's response to her is out of hurt, not indifference. Sherrard has created a tender and complex story around these very different characters. Ellie shows growth throughout the novel in a way that is believable and appropriate for a child her age. Her grandmother's change is very subtle, which is also appropriate, given the circumstances. Readers are not left with a sugary sweet ending, but with a conclusion that offers some hope. Sherrard writes with compassion and understanding about some tough issues, and her characters show remarkable depth. A realistic, moving story of how a broken family copes with loneliness and anger as they search for healing in their lives.— Corrina Austin, Locke's Public School, St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada

Kirkus Reviews

During an economic downturn in 1954, ten-year-old Ellie's father is forced to leave her for the summer with her maternal grandmother and Uncle Roger, people she's never known. Although Ellie is innately optimistic, it's hard to adjust to living with a cold, distant grandmother who blames both the child and Ellie's father for her daughter's death in childbirth. Insightfully exploring Ellie's sometimes pathetic efforts to both understand and please her grandmother and at the same time sensitively exposing the reasons behind the woman's bitterness, this novel gives each of the main characters believable depth. At one astonishing point, Grandma impatiently reaches around Ellie to teach her how to cut dough: "I realized with a start that her arms were around me. Not really , but sort of....I closed my eyes and pretended, just for a minute, that she was hugging me, like an normal grandmother would do." Quiet moments like that abound and effectively convey a remarkable level of feeling, making this a worthy and moving purchase. (Historical fiction. 9-13)