• Age: 14
• Grade: 9

How will she ever find him in this wild place?

 

Jane Priddle, a proper young Englishwoman, has lived a sheltered, genteel life. In 1897, she is offered a life-changing opportunity: she will travel to Canada's northwest frontier to search for young Billie Thomm.

 

Surviving in the gutters of London, England, Billie had acquired the cunning of someone twice his 15 years, but a moment of desperation and his connection to a messy death brought him to the Eastwood Mission Society. Before the law could catch up with him, he became a home child, one of thousands of orphans and beggars shipped to Canada to find better lives. Now he is on the run again-and on his own, just the way he likes it.

 

As clues to his whereabouts lead Jane north of Fort Edmonton, she encounters a cast of rough-hewn characters, the likes of which she has never known. Some repel, others surprise, and one she is strangely attracted to. Trapped in a wilderness of adventure and horror, brilliant aurora borealis and bitter cold, Jane stumbles into a life bigger than anything she could have imagined.

Born and raised on the Canadian prairies, Freda Jackson is the author of Searching for Billie, a novel set around the historical immigration of Canada's Home Children. Her writing has been published in the Edmonton Journal and Western Families. She is a member of the Historical Society of Alberta, the Edmonton & District Historical Society and the Writers Union of Canada. For a Modest Fee is her second novel.

 

Please visit www.fredajackson.com.

Freda Jackson's profile page

Searching for Billie

Set in the Canadian West in 1897, this novel portrays the harsh realities of living in untamed territory. Jane Priddle arrives in Edmonton from London, England. She has been sent to find evidence that the British Child Emigration Movement was doing the right thing by sending orphaned street children to live with and work for Canadian families. Instead Jane finds “Home Children” living in abusive, undesirable situations. Her attempt to track down one runaway child, leads her into the Canadian wilderness, where she discovers her capacity for grief and compassion. After spending a winter at a remote stopping post, Jane returns with all the wisdom and experience of a true homesteader.

Jackson is the author of several short stories and articles.

Caution: Includes some graphic and heart-wrenching accounts of tragic incidents involving wild animals and two scenes of attempted rape, which although not explicitly descriptive, are emotionally charged.