A novel in verse set in a small Canadian town early in World War II centers on the Loney siblings: Nora, Ran, Jim, and Addie. The Loney children, left after their father’s death with a stepmother who hates them, find small relief when she abandons them: Their struggle to find food and pay the rent is a bitter one. They are watched over—and their lives sometimes influenced by—the ghosts of their parents, a father trying to redeem himself, a mother who never stopped loving her children. Author Pamela Porter examine facets of human nature—at its best and worst—through the lives and actions of many in the town; told through multiple voices, the story is reminiscent of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in the way it peeks into the lives of a variety of individuals within a community. Porter reveals very human dramas with her fine writing; thoughtful teen readers will find struggles, sorrows, and deception, along with caring and compassion that stand out in relief. (Age 14 and older)

In 1941, the four Loney children, orphaned and alone in a small Saskatchewan prairie town, manage to pull themselves up and survive under the watchful eye of a pair of ghosts.