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chanbing's review against another edition
4.0
This was one of my favorite books in the Dear Canada series because the entire concept was something so foreign to me.
I'd honestly recommend any of the Dear Canada books to young girls because not only are they educational but they're interesting and I remember reading them and thinking it was really cool that I could learn about Canadian history without feeling like that's what I was doing.
I'd honestly recommend any of the Dear Canada books to young girls because not only are they educational but they're interesting and I remember reading them and thinking it was really cool that I could learn about Canadian history without feeling like that's what I was doing.
doucetju's review against another edition
4.0
Un très beau livre qui se lit d’un trait. Des personnages attachants et drôles, surtout Hélène. Une belle aventure à découvrir malgré les difficultés et la dure réalité, le style en fait une lecture légère malgré tout. Une note de ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ grandement mérité!
vicvicam's review against another edition
omggg I remember she was like 14 and married a 35 year old... 10 year old me was shocked
soulwinds's review
4.0
Another Trottier book in my read bank. She is a decent writer of historical events in a fictitious setting.
This time she's writing for Dear Canada about the French bid to better populate New France to hold their claim to the land with the Filles du Roi (they were called this later in time, so I'm not sure why it made the Title). See, there were a lot of men going to the colonies in North America, but not a ladies. In fact, almost none. So the King decided that those boys needed some women and began offering dowries to woman willing to make the journey to North America to marry a frenchman. The men had to be married in order to trade, among other things.
At first they were sending orphaned girls/teens/women from the city and a few minor noble women. This is where Catherine and Helene St. Onge come in. They seemed to be minor nobility who lost their parents and have a guardian intent on shoving them into a convent. Catherine's father was negotiating Catherine's marriage to a man in North America so she decides to take a chance and head there as one of the King's eligible ladies.Only Catherine dies en route.
En route Helene decides to become a one of the Filles du Rio (only they weren't called that yet), though she keeps saying she is too young to marry right away at 13. Now, this I have a bit of an issue with as it was common practice to marry off 12 year olds and that time. So, why does she keep saying she's too young and will take her time is beyond me.
So, we get a pretty good (and interesting) view of life in France for Helene. We get the mention of the common practice of woman from families who lose all male relatives being shoved in convents by their guardians because in the old times people had to pay families to take their daughters as brides....yeah. Not going to touch on old day stupidity.
We get a pretty good idea of how miserable the journey across the ocean was in a small wooden ship was, complete with illness and death. We meet the people in charge of 'Filles' and another interesting set of characters that represent the descendants would now be described as Metis.
Once in New France we get a first hand account of what the colonies were like, the tension between the settlers and the indigenous population, the workings of a pub/tavern/inn type place, and a few of the laws in place at the time. We even get a run in with the Smallpox which was known to decimate colonies, indigenous tribes, etc in the old days.
All in all I thought it was a pretty good representation of Canada before it was Canada from a French point of view. I enjoyed the amount of information Trottier managed to cram in there without making it a boring history textbook that takes all the fun out of history. I appreciated the fact that the author gave our protagonist the proper background to explain how she can write so well. The use of small french words peppered throughout was fun and a good way for me to dust off my super rusty french and see if I still knew a thing or two. The is a glossary in the back, just in case though.
Not bad.
This time she's writing for Dear Canada about the French bid to better populate New France to hold their claim to the land with the Filles du Roi (they were called this later in time, so I'm not sure why it made the Title). See, there were a lot of men going to the colonies in North America, but not a ladies. In fact, almost none. So the King decided that those boys needed some women and began offering dowries to woman willing to make the journey to North America to marry a frenchman. The men had to be married in order to trade, among other things.
At first they were sending orphaned girls/teens/women from the city and a few minor noble women. This is where Catherine and Helene St. Onge come in. They seemed to be minor nobility who lost their parents and have a guardian intent on shoving them into a convent. Catherine's father was negotiating Catherine's marriage to a man in North America so she decides to take a chance and head there as one of the King's eligible ladies.
En route Helene decides to become a one of the Filles du Rio (only they weren't called that yet), though she keeps saying she is too young to marry right away at 13. Now, this I have a bit of an issue with as it was common practice to marry off 12 year olds and that time. So, why does she keep saying she's too young and will take her time is beyond me.
So, we get a pretty good (and interesting) view of life in France for Helene. We get the mention of the common practice of woman from families who lose all male relatives being shoved in convents by their guardians because in the old times people had to pay families to take their daughters as brides....yeah. Not going to touch on old day stupidity.
We get a pretty good idea of how miserable the journey across the ocean was in a small wooden ship was, complete with illness and death. We meet the people in charge of 'Filles' and another interesting set of characters that represent the descendants would now be described as Metis.
Once in New France we get a first hand account of what the colonies were like, the tension between the settlers and the indigenous population, the workings of a pub/tavern/inn type place, and a few of the laws in place at the time. We even get a run in with the Smallpox which was known to decimate colonies, indigenous tribes, etc in the old days.
All in all I thought it was a pretty good representation of Canada before it was Canada from a French point of view. I enjoyed the amount of information Trottier managed to cram in there without making it a boring history textbook that takes all the fun out of history. I appreciated the fact that the author gave our protagonist the proper background to explain how she can write so well. The use of small french words peppered throughout was fun and a good way for me to dust off my super rusty french and see if I still knew a thing or two. The is a glossary in the back, just in case though.
Not bad.
macklin's review
5.0
For a long time this was my favourite Dear Canada book, recently been uprooted by To Stand on My Own. I love Helene, she is a strong and likable heroine. This is still one of my favourite Dear Canada and I recommend it!
UPDATE 27-09-2017
Still one of my favourites.
UPDATE 27-09-2017
Still one of my favourites.
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