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Orphan at My Door - Dear Canada

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The Home Child Diary of Victoria Cope - Guelph, Ontario, 1897

Saturday, May 28, 1897, Bedtime

We went and got our Home Girl. She is very small and shy. Her name is Mary Anna Wilson and she is twelve years old. She looks as though she's ten. There were just four children on the station platform. Only one of them was a girl. All four wore labels with their names written on them, and each of them had a trunk - a big, wooden one with brass corners. I could tell Father was displeased about something. "We need someone strong to help my wife," he told the woman waiting with the children. "That girl is nothing but a child. A sickly youngster wouldn't be worth her keep." The girl had her head ducked down so far we could just see the top of her hat. She could not help but hear every word he spoke.

At the turn of the century, Dr. Thomas Barnardo, an English philanthropist, sought to give orphaned and abandoned children a second chance in the New World. These children, "Home Children" as they were called, came to work in Canada as farm labourers and domestic servants. Victoria Cope's family takes in a Home Child, a sad and quiet girl named Mary Anna. Victoria soon discovers the reason for Mary Anna's silence - she was separated from her younger brother. Victoria vows to help Mary Anna find her brother. As Victoria confides her hopes and fears to her "Dear Diary," she reveals herself as a born writer.

Ages 10 & Up.

Author	Jean Little
Product Code	LB473
Ages	10 and up
Length	224 pages
Publisher	Scholastic
Format	Hardcover