Lesias Dream

This is a young adult novel and I am not in that category of readers but I found it to be a fascinating account of a little known episode in Canadian history, the internment of innocent Ukrainians as "enemy aliens" during the First World War. I had never head of this in high school or university, and it was only many years later that I came across some information about what still remains a relatively unknown "blank spot" in our nation's history. This novel weaves the internment operations in with the story of a pioneer settler family, their trials and tribulations as well as their triumphs. My teenaged daughter got to read it after I did and she loved it so much that we posted a copy to relatives in western Ukraine, where English is now being taught; it amazed them to learn what had happened here in Canada. This is a must read book for young Canadians, and should become part of the English (Canadian Studies/Canadian Literature)curriculum in junior high schools across the land. Highly recommended!

Lesia's Dream is Laura Langston's seventh children's book and second novel. Set just before and during World War I, it is a first person narrative about a teen who leaves ethnic oppression and hardship of Ukraine only to find more of the same in Canada.Fifteen year old Lesia and her older brother secretly save enough money to transport their family to Canada and away from the perpetual poverty of farming rented land even if their particular Polish landlord is kinder than most. When the teens have saved enough, they convince their parents to emigrate, but Lesia's grandmother refuses to go with them, preferring the status quo.Canada is not the land of milk and honey that the advertisements promise, and Lesia's family find themselves on marginal scrub land with an abundance of mosquitoes. The family's fortune goes from bad to worse when World War I breaks out and Lesia's brother and father are interned as "enemy aliens".Langston is to be congratulated for writing a compelling novel on a shameful incident that our government has shoved under the carpet. While everyone knows about the internment of Japanese Canadians in WWII, few are aware of the fact that 8,000 Eastern European men, women and children were labelled "enemy aliens" and interned during WWI. About 5000 of those interned were Ukrainians who were mislabelled as "Austrian", but Poles, Turks, Italians and Jews were also thrown into internment camps. In a nutshell, anyone the government didn't consider white enough was targeted. What is more remarkable is that Langston is not of Ukrainian heritage, and before embarking on this novel, she knew no one personally who had been interned.Langston has researched her subject so thoroughly that the reader is plunged into compelling and realistic scenes set in Ukraine, the ship voyage across the ocean, and life in the wilds of Manitoba. The reader feels the stings of the summer mosquitoes and the bite of the vicious winter winds. The most vivid scenes of the novel take place during the winter in the wilds of Manitoba. While Lesia's father and brother are interned, Lesia, her little sister and pregnant mother must not only survive, but they must beat the clock and clear their land before the deed reverts back to the government. The core of this novel is told from Lesia's point of view as a young girl, but the story is framed with a narrative of Lesia in 2003: an old woman, telling her great-granddaughter about her experiences.