Josepha

Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustration winnerElizabeth Mrazik Cleaver Picture Book Award winnerGovernor General's Literary Award for Children's Text nomineeThe time is 1900, in the midst of the great waves of European immigration to North America. Standing in the dust and wind of the prairie, a young boy prepares to say good-bye to Josepha, his older classmate, who is leaving the alienating world of the classroom where no one speaks his language. But what a wonderful friend he has been! And without a common language between them, how will his younger friend ever say good-bye? What gift can he give Josepha to show how special their friendship has been?

Josepha depicts a facet of pioneer life seldom considered - the immigrant child's struggle to begin again in a strange land.