Move Smart, Boy!

MOVE SMART, BOY, launched at the Confederation Centre Library in Charlottetown on August 24, 2002, is a well-written, fast-paced historical novel about several "home children" on rural Prince Edward Island between 1911 and 1913. The book's main character is Adam Hollyfield, a "home child" from Birmingham, England, his arrival on Prince Edward Island at the age of ten years - accompanied by his brother and sister, and his difficult first two years on Prince Edward Island. Why were there "home children"? Between the late 1800's and up to World War II Great Britain's economy was in a very grave state. It had lost its industrial edge to Germany and the United States. These countries were becoming highly industrialized, so there was less need for products from British factories. This job loss resulted in many city families in Britain having to go to workhouses. Children were often sent to childrens' homes or orphanages, even though they were often not orphans. Hope for a "better life" for selected children of sound mind and good health was proposed during the years 1869 to the late 1930's when British charitable organizations and childrens' homes conducted child emigration schemes. Each year they shipped hundreds of children, often without parent's permission, from cities in Britain to farms in pioneering Canada. These children, who became known as "home children", were sometimes adopted by kind Canadian families, but more often they were placed on farms where they were considered cheap labour and treated like dirt.

MOVE SMART, BOY takes the reader back to mid-May 1911 when one hundred and fifty indigent children from several large cities in Britain sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Liverpool, England to Halifax, Nova Scotia. These children spent two weeks on a steamship in congested steerage below decks before arriving at Pier Two - later known as Pier 21 - in Halifax. Once in Halifax these children were herded into a long holding shed and examined by doctors for contagious diseases before being processed by Canadian immigration officers and released to placement agencies for dispersal to guardian families in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Many of these children, including Adam Hollyfield, did not find a "better life" on their arrival in Canada.

MOVE SMART, BOY, dedicated in memory to the author's father, George Albert Ravenhill Jr., is a very interesting book of approximately 230 pages. Copyright Louise Ravenhill 2002, printed and bound by Kwik Kopy, Charlottetown, P.E.I.. I.S.B.N. is 0-9731333-0-9. Available from the author by email: olevar729@eastlink.ca or by telephone: 902-368-8817. To broaden your understanding of the plight of many "home children" who came to Canada, MOVE SMART, BOY is a good place to start.