The Carved Box »

Gillian Chan is the author of Glory Days, Golden Girl and The Carved Box. She lives in Dundas, Ontario.

Fifteen-year-old Callum, recently arrived from Scotland, finds comfort in the friendship of a half-starved dog and gains the courage to face life in the New World.

Children's Literature

Fifteen-year-old Callum has just traveled alone from Scotland to the New World. Why does he spend all his money to buy Dog, a huge black beast who won't abandon anyone holding the mysterious carved box—a box with a puzzling caution about opening it? In this engaging novel, with its pervasive hint of the supernatural, Dog becomes Callum's first friend in his new Canadian home. Callum, an out-of-place city boy yearning to be a scholar, hates the grueling physical labor on his Uncle Roy's farm, but unless the entire family toils to near exhaustion they'll "all starve in this wild land." Meanwhile, Dog is comforting and magical, eerily anticipating Callum's needs and reading his very thoughts—until the box breaks open. Although Callum's emotional reactions and reluctance to defend himself often make him seem younger than fifteen, readers will feel his loneliness and frustration, and his love of Dog. The historical setting, with American rebel troops threatening Upper Canada, may need clarification for American readers, but the mystery of Dog and the box will keep them riveted from beginning to end. 2001, Kids Can Press, $16.95. Ages 9 to 13. Reviewer:Betty Hicks