by Sarah Ellis
Another “find” in Almonte was pure coincidence. An avid gardener, Sarah took a break from researching Flora’s story to visit a garden full of irises. There she met a man who had worked for many years in the Ministry of Heritage and who knew all the local history people to contact. “I came home with odd little notes saying fireflies, leeches, fishing, flour-sack underwear.” All these eventually made their way into Flora’s diary.
Sarah Ellis’s first Dear Canada book, A Prairie as Wide as the Sea, was a CLA Honour Book. Her latest Dear Canada, That Fatal Night, was nominated for the Chocolate Lily Award and shortlisted for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award and the IODE Violet Downey Award. Sarah has a gift for writing in diary format, and tells a story about standing in front of a group of grade ones, talking to them about a book written in diary form, asking, “Now, does anybody know what a diary is?” “Yes,” said a shy little girl, “it’s when you don’t feel well in your stomach and you have to go to the bathroom in a big hurry.”
Sarah has won the Governor General’s Award (for Pick-Up Sticks) and twice been a finalist (for Out of the Blue and The Several Lives of Orphan Jack). She has also won the Mr. Christie’s Book Award, the IODE Violet Downey Award, the Vicky Metcalf Award for Body of Work, the Sheila Egoff Award and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. Her books have been selected as OLA Best Bets, ALA Notables and SLJ Best Books. Sarah is the author of over a dozen children’s books, including The Baby Project, Back of Beyond, Big Ben, The Young Writer’s Companion, The Queen’s Feet and Odd Man Out.
In addition to her own writing, Sarah lectures on children’s literature, teaches writing, and reviews children’s books for various publications.
While the events described and some of the characters in this book may be based on actual historical events and real people, Flora Rutherford is a fictional character created by the author, and her diary is a work of fiction.
Copyright © 2008 by Sarah Ellis.
Published by Scholastic Canada Ltd.
SCHOLASTIC and DEAR CANADA and logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
All rights reserved under International and Pan–American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read this e-book on-screen. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher, Scholastic Canada Ltd., 604 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1E1, Canada.
ISBN: 978-1-4431-2405-8
First eBook edition: September 2012
Also Available
To read about Flora Rutherford’s Christmas and meet other Dear Canada heroines check out
Books in the Dear Canada Series
Alone in an Untamed Land, The Filles du Roi Diary of Hélène St. Onge by Maxine Trottier
Banished from Our Home, The Acadian Diary of Angélique Richard by Sharon Stewart
Blood Upon Our Land, The North West Resistance Diary of Josephine Bouvier by Maxine Trottier
Brothers Far from Home, The World War I Diary of Eliza Bates by Jean Little
A Christmas to Remember, Tales of Comfort and Joy
The Death of My Country, The Plains of Abraham Diary of Geneviève Aubuchon by Maxine Trottier
A Desperate Road to Freedom, The Underground Railroad Diary of Julia May Jackson by Karleen Bradford
Exiles from the War, The War Guests Diary of Charlotte Mary Twiss by Jean Little
Footsteps in the Snow, The Red River Diary of Isobel Scott by Carol Matas
Hoping for Home, Stories of Arrival
If I Die Before I Wake, The Flu Epidemic Diary of Fiona Macgregor by Jean Little
No Safe Harbour, The Halifax Explosion Diary of Charlotte Blackburn by Julie Lawson
Not a Nickel to Spare, The Great Depression Diary of Sally Cohen by Perry Nodelman
An Ocean Apart, The Gold Mountain Diary of Chin Mei-ling by Gillian Chan
Orphan at My Door, The Home Child Diary of Victoria Cope by Jean Little
A Prairie as Wide as the Sea, The Immigrant Diary of Ivy Weatherall by Sarah Ellis
Prisoners in the Promised Land, The Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk by Marsha Skrypuch
A Rebel’s Daughter, The 1837 Rebellion Diary of Arabella Stevenson by Janet Lunn
A Ribbon of Shining Steel, The Railway Diary of Kate Cameron by Julie Lawson
A Sea of Sorrows, The Typhus Epidemic Diary of Johanna Leary by Norah McClintock
A Season for Miracles, Twelve Tales of Christmas
That Fatal Night, The Titanic Diary of Dorothy Wilton by Sarah Ellis
To Stand On My Own, The Polio Epidemic Diary of Noreen Robertson by Barbara Haworth-Attard
Torn Apart, The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi by Susan Aihoshi
A Trail of Broken Dreams, The Gold Rush Diary of Harriet Palmer by Barbara Haworth-Attard
Turned Away, The World War II Diary of Devorah Bernstein by Carol Matas
Where the River Takes Me, The Hudson’s Bay Company Diary of Jenna Sinclair by Julie Lawson
Whispers of War, The War of 1812 Diary of Susanna Merritt by Kit Pearson
Winter of Peril, The Newfoundland Diary of Sophie Loveridge by Jan Andrews
With Nothing But Our Courage, The Loyalist Diary of Mary MacDonald by Karleen Bradford
Go to www.scholastic.ca/dearcanada for information on the Dear Canada Series — see inside the books, read an excerpt or a review, post a review, and more.