Book Review
Title: Susanna’s Quill

Author: Julie Johnston

Publisher: Tundra Books

Category: Young-Adult Fiction Novel

Released: August 14^th 2007

Pages: 330

ISBN: 978-0-88776-806-4

Reviewed By: Kindah Mardam Bey (Ontario Correspondent – Canada)

Like most children of the Canadian school system, I was educated on Susanna Moodie, and here’s what I understood of her at the time; woman settler writes memoirs. That was it. Perhaps, that was it for many students learning about Susanna Moodie, but had we learned of Susanna Moodie through a fairly accurate fictional account called Susanna’s Quill by Julie Johnston, geared towards the young-adult age-group, I suspect we would have absorbed a lot more about this phenomenal woman’s historical relevancy to the shaping of Canadian history.

Susanna Moodie, as Johnston portrays her to be, is a British girl raised in a middle-class family; comfortable enough not to be a scivvy in some wealthier household, and deemed intelligent enough to be educated in literature. Having a bustle of sisters, a slightly unrealistic Mother, and a father recently deceased, a budding abolitionist, Susanna seeks solace from her disenfranchised state in London where she meets intriguing and exciting members of society. One such debonair man is recently returned from Africa, regimentally clad, John Dunbar Moodie – her future husband. The not-so swift courtship and a thought to a better future, the finally married Moodie’s moved lock-stock-and-barrel to the new frontier.

What was perceived as a challenging life change, promptly turned into an act of survival and Susanna’s more genteel ways were exchanged for hard winters and low-class neighbours. Her existence, as she knew it, became the stories she would eventually commit to paper about the untold hardship of a settler. Her eldest sister, back in the comfortable surroundings of England, disowned Susanna upon publication, and professed Susanna to be an outright liar as no one would ever been subjected to such travesties. Little did Susanna’s eldest sister know what life held for those brave (and uninformed) enough to challenge the untouched Canadian wilderness.

Even though this was a young-adults novel, it spoke to any person of any age. Johnston does the most spectacular job of pulling Susanna’s actual accounts into flowing stories. The book was very hard to get into initially, and I would say the first quarter was quite dry, but when Susanna’s Quill got into the thick of the story, it was very mesmerizing. When Susanna moved, and her teapot met its end, as ridiculous as that sounds, I actually felt the loss and weight of that situation so deeply; truly, only good writing brings you to feel the depth of sadness of a character.

Susanna’s Quill is a fabulous read and very interesting for anyone of any age. I would, however, recommend it to school boards as a way for students to immerse themselves into Canadian history without feeling like the past is lacklustre.