Book Description

Ella is surprised by her birthday gift from her father: a Brownie camera and the advice to seek pictures of things that ‘don’t belong’. This is how Ella first notices Billy, a boy at her school. They become good friends, although Ella is sure Billy is keeping something from her. Ella soon realizes there are others to whom the ‘don’t belong’ tag applies. They include herself! Helping out at her mother’s IODE group, Ella finds out about women’s rights – or the lack of them. When Ella’s mother’s purse is raided, suspicion falls on Billy. Then, just as Ella is learning more about both her mother and her mysterious friend, the cyclone arrives, and it’s the substandard housing of the poor that’s worst-hit. How can Ella, armed only with her camera, help her friend? Praise for Ice Storm: “Draper covers the terror and impact of the storm. She also weaves in a subtle environmental message about overreliance on electricity...an unusual story of survival.” – Kirkus Reviews Praise for Graveyard of the Sea: “the author makes the setting of her Newfoundland tale as satisfying as the smell of seafood chowder”; “readers are...sensually and emotionally embedded in 12-year-old Murphy’s life in the outport” – Canadian Children’s Book News