Until Niagara Falls
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Until Niagara Falls
During work period, I stared at the giant June calendar on the chalkboard, trying to think of a way to get extra marks. I’d given up the idea of walking a tightrope as a demonstration. I wasn’t brave enough to try to balance on a thick rope, even if it was only a foot off the ground.
Miss Heard, the other grade five teacher from across the hall, came to whisper something to my teacher. Miss Heard actually looked pretty when she covered her mouth with her hand. She had the worst set of crooked teeth in the world. I was relieved not to be in her class. I would never be able to stop staring at those teeth long enough to concentrate on my work.
“Brenda,” my teacher called out. “We need your help.”
I got out of my seat and went into the hallway. She probably wanted me to take a message to the principal’s office. I was the only kid in school who could find her way to the principal’s office and back without getting into trouble.
“Someone in Miss Heard’s class isn’t feeling well,” Miss Wilson explained. “She’s not sure of the way home.” A skinny girl in a faded dress leaned against the wall.
“Rosedale Crescent is off of your street, isn’t it?” Miss Heard said. I nodded. “You have your grandmother’s permission to walk her home,” she said, putting the girl’s thin, clammy hand into mine. “Then you are dismissed.”
Brenda meets Maureen Sullivan when she walks her home from school during school hours. Maureen has chicken pox, and her parents and seven siblings move into a small house near Brenda. Brenda has a school project to complete about Niagara Falls where she lives, but she gets chicken pox and has to miss the last few weeks of school. Her project was going to be about the Great Blondin, Jean-Francois Gravelot, a tight rope walker who attempts to cross Niagara Falls. Brenda is finishing Grade 5, but she has skipped a grade.
Brenda lives with her grandma during the school week and then with her father when he is home on the weekend. Brenda’s mother died a year ago, and she is buried in Toronto about 200 kilometres away. Brenda, who is really missing her mother, isn’t very kind to her grandmother because she wants a nana and not someone to replace her mother. Her grandmother is trying very hard to help Brenda in the transition from her mother’s death and teaching Brenda what she needs to know to be a successful adult. One of Grandma’s annoying habits is that she counts food – 7 long green beans or 10 short green beans per person.
Brenda collects dolls, including a Scottish Highland Doll from her Aunt Mary, a rag doll from the Pioneer Village and Evangeline from Nova Scotia. When Maureen comes to visit Brenda, she breaks one of the dolls. This event is the first indication that the friendship between Brenda and Maureen will have difficulties. Maureen also wants to try on Brenda’s clothes and snoop in Grandma’s jewellery. Harvey is Brenda’s next door neighbour and has some special needs. Every dog he has ever had has run away. Harvey is a friend to Brenda, and she helps him out. Even though Maureen teases Harvey, in the end she gives him a puppy, although maybe not for the right reasons.
The girls spend time in the summer collecting bottles and helping at the public library. Brenda also puts in a slogan for a pickle contest where the first prize is a new bike and a year of pickles. A downside of summer for Brenda is the two week visit of her cousin, Amy, who is several years older and a pain in her side. The u-side is a visit to the CNE in Toronto. Brenda plans to take Maureen, but, after some difficulty and a missing bracelet, she takes Harvey much to Maureen’s dismay. Maureen and Brenda have very different family situations, different personalities and different value systems. Brenda struggles between friendship and doing what she thinks is right. Brenda discovers that she can overcome being afraid of heights and the dark, all with the rulebreaking Maureen. Brenda also discovers that friendship can be like walking a tightrope.
Until Niagara Falls is an excellent story with believable characters dealing with growing up, and it would be a fine read-aloud choice. The plot is fast paced, and the ending is both satisfying and heartwarming. The story is told in first person from Brenda’s point of view. There is some language which may be problematic for younger readers. (The word, “bitch” is used by Maureen.) There are 19 chapters with titles that lead the reader through the plot. The author includes a letter at the end which shows that the author entered a Bick’s Pickle slogan competition and won it in November 22, 1960.
Deborah Mervold is an educator from Shellbrook, Saskatchewan, with experience as a high school English teacher and teacher-librarian. Presently, she is involved with post-secondary education as a faculty trainer and program development consultant at Saskatchewan Polytechnic. Kenzi Gerein is a Grade 6 student in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.