Books with author Mary Razzell

While the rest of the world anticipates a victorious end to the Second World War, sixteen-year-old Sheila Brary finds life in a remote British Columbia outport suffocating and isolating. A household full of brothers, a philandering father and, most of all, Sheila's embittered mother all stand in the way of a bright, beautiful teenager with ambitions and dreams -- to continue her schooling and become a nurse. The mother-daughter relationship that lies at the heart of this haunting novel is both timeless and complex, and the two strong, rebellious women are more alike than they care to admit. One has succumbed to the demands of a sexist age with resentment, while the other struggles to break away. In the end, Sheila defies her mother by pursuing a romance with Nels, a handsome local carpenter. But when she becomes pregnant, she turns to her father for help, with devastating results.

"Mike wants to head up north to the Beaufort Sea, he's got himself a good job there with an oil rig. There's no place for you, and I think you better stay in one place.... Don't look so panicky! Abandoning you? I'm not abandoning you!"With those words Lucy Haley is forced from her Chicago home into an unfamiliar world. She is placed with a grandmother she has never met in a place she has never been. Despite this alien setting, she learns over time to love both her grandmother and her new home on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia.Talking to her grandmother and old friends of her mother's, she also comes closer to finding out the identity of her biological father. But when she attempts to contact him, she is met only with coldness; he is an internationally renowned Haida artist with a new family, and has no time for his daughter.When Lucy becomes pregnant and her grandmother becomes ill, she has no one to turn to. What follows is a story of one girl's journey from the innocence of childhood to the experience of motherhood. Along the way she is met with racism and other difficult barriers, but ultimately the love and respect taught by her Native culture brings her fractured world together.

While the rest of the world celebrates the end of World War II, sixteen-year-old Sheila Brary finds life in a remote British Columbia outport suffocating and isolating. A household full of brothers, a philandering father, and, most of all, Sheila’s demanding, embittered mother all stand in the way of a bright, beautiful teenager who dreams of continuing her schooling and becoming a nurse. The mother-daughter relationship at the heart of this haunting novel is both timeless and complex, and the two strong, rebellious women are more alike than they care to admit. One meets the demands of a sexist age with resentment and anger, while the other struggles to break away. In the end, Sheila defies her mother by pursuing a romance with a local carpenter. But when she becomes pregnant, she turns to her father for help, with devastating results.First published in 1984, Snow Apples remains a classic — a gritty, uncompromising story about a young woman who struggles to choose her own path amidst formidable obstacles of family, place, and time.

Fiction. Young Adult. Falling in love creates an enchanted time, and when it's on the magical Sunshine Coast of British Columbia during the Second World War, it is never to be forgotten. The increased emotions of a country at war and the heartache as many of the young men join up to serve their country are always present. A special music becomes the background. It is the era of the big band, and Glenn Miller, Count Basie and Frank Sinatra top the Hit Parade on the radio each week. For Meg, who is seventeen, it is a special time, but she is also living in an isolated village. She has only one other girl for company, and the highlight of the day is the daily arrival of the Union Steamship with the mail and supplies. A summer job at the local guest house introduces her to a number of boys with whom she strikes up a friendship. But it is Bruce, a young naval officer who has been badly burned in the Battle of the Atlantic, who most interests her.

With her parents on vacation and her stern grandmother's arrival delayed, sixteen-year-old Anne McLaughlin-Scott is on her own for a day in the exciting San Francisco of 1970. Anne feels stifled at home and wants to live with her free-spirited Aunt Ruth in Vancouver, BC. So when she encounters a childhood crush, now a draft dodger heading north himself and investigating a mystery aboard a Vancouver-bound cruise ship . . . well, everything seems to be pushing Anne in the same direction.Anne finagles a job aboard the Ocean Spirit only to find herself caught up in a typhoid outbreak and torn between her duty to sick passengers, her loyalty to her shipmates and her desire to help the heroic doctor investigating the incident.In Runaway at Sea, well-known YA author Mary Razzell draws on actual incidents and her own background in nursing to create a gripping medical adventure aboard a cruise ship. And in Anne McLaughlin-Scott, Razzell creates a memorable young heroine whose courage and moral compass serve her well as she navigates the shoals of family conflict, budding sexuality and looming adulthood.

Falling in love creates an enchanted time, and when it’s on the magical Sunshine Coast of British Columbia during WWII, it is never to be forgotten. The increased emotions of a country at war are always present, as well as the heartache as the young men who joined up to serve their country return wounded—or not at all. For Meg, who is seventeen and beginning to go to dances and to meet interesting young men, the time appears filled with possibilities. She longs to enter the world of adults but with an education that will allow her a fulfilling life. At the same time, her mother and others tell her there is no need for girls to be educated. What she needs is a “safe” man. As Meg ventures further into the adult world of love and marriage she sees that it is filled with dark shadows. Can she take a chance on love while still pursuing her dreams?

Dreaming of Horses by Mary RazzellGrowing up in Alberta during the worst years of the Depression saw hardship we can only imagine on looking back at that time. Dreaming of Horses is the memorable story of a spirited girl who struggles through a life of deprivation and hardship with her Irish immigrant family. They’ve come to a new and rough land where there is never enough food, work is hard to come by and money is often non-existent. Young Sheila sees little of her father, a ne’er-do-well who can’t seem to hold down a job and is always looking for the latest get-rich-quick scheme. The family’s only hope for survival in these harsh times comes from her mother, a dour, hard-working woman who is left to keep the household intact while the dad is off on one of his many “trips.”From the first sentence, the reader is drawn in to this young girl’s plight through the author’s deft handling of the language, the characters and the mood of the era. The senses are quickly immersed in the sounds, sights, smells, emotions and fears experienced by a girl facing a bewildering time in her young life. Based on the author’s life, Dreaming of Horses is a novel that sneaks up on you, a beautifully written, charming and riveting tale that takes hold of your emotions and doesn’t let go.