• Age: 6 to 9
• Grade: 1 to 4
• Reading age: 6 to 9

Tom lives in the countryside in the mid 1800s and he’s curious — what is it like in the town, the city and the world beyond? It’s all “work and more work,” everyone tells him. Determined to find out for himself, Tom sets off with a bit of bread and cheese in a bundle…

He encounters crowded marketplaces, bustling wharves and storms on the high seas. In China he sees how tea is made; in India he watches men make deep blue dye from indigo; in Ceylon he marvels at the skill of cinnamon peelers. Eventually, he returns home with stories and gifts, showing his parents the riches to be found all over the world.

Includes an illustrated afterword about the different kinds of work mentioned in the story when, in the days before steam, nothing moved except through the power of wind, water and muscle.

Linda Little's life has been unlike Jackson Bigney's in nearly every way. She grew up on a small farm in Hawkesbury, Ontario, and studied at Queen's University in Kingston and at Memorial University in St. John's. After a few months in English Harbour, on Trinity Bay, she moved to a small farm near River John, Nova Scotia. Like Jackson, she found she had little taste for farm chores; she quit raising cows and now keeps only pigs, chickens, and turkeys during the summer. Like Jackson, she, too, is a terrible fiddle player — so terrible that she has been known to use her rendition of "Skye Boat Song" as revenge. Since childhood, Linda Little has been fascinated by the emotional life of men, especially the tenderness between comrades, both real and fictional. She has found these intense feelings all the more compelling because they are usually concealed and seldom glimpsed by others and has built much of her fiction on the exploration of what lies behind these moments. Strong Hollow is Linda Little#&39;s first novel. Her short fiction has previously appeared in literary journals and anthologies, including Descant, The Antigonish Review, and The Journey Prize Anthology.

Linda Little's profile page

Óscar T. Pérez has illustrated a number of children’s books with his distinctive style, which have been published in Spain, France and Brazil. His work also appears in newspapers, advertising and animation. He lives in Valladolid, Spain.

Óscar Pérez's profile page

Filled with exquisite illustrations . . . [a] fascinating industrial travelogue from the 19th century.

Cooperative Children's Book Center

Pérez’s three-masted ships and visions of far-off lands provide plenty of visual sustenance. Readers will be surprised to find that some 19th-century children may have had more freedom than they do.

Publishers Weekly

Linda Little’s rich language leads readers on a wonderful odyssey of sights and sounds. . . . A delightful book for storytellers and younger independent readers.

CM Magazine

A young traveler discovers a world of wonders hidden in a seemingly ordinary word.

Kirkus Reviews

The natural curiosity of a boy growing up in the countryside leads him to discover an unimaginable world beyond his isolated home.

Booklist