AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH
In the fall of 1935, Polly, now almost 13, is sent against her will to Victoria to attend St. Winifred's School for Girls. Polly hates boarding school as much as she expects to, and is suffused with homesickness for her happy life with Noni, her beloved grandmother, on Kingfisher Island. The only good thing about boarding school is Special Art. Polly's growing desire to become an artist is nourished by her art teacher and a magical visit to Emily Carr. A conflict develops within Polly about whether to continue at school because of her art, or to refuse to go back. An even larger dilemma is when Maud reveals an enormous secret that threatens to destroy both girls' relationship with Noni.About this novel:
In this sequel to THE WHOLE TRUTH, I revisit two themes I have explored in previous novels: going to boarding school, and the difficulties of early adolescence. In my first novel, THE DARING GAME, I created a boarding school based on the one I once attended. Here I make up a school that is far stricter, with a ridiculous and unfair headmistress. I also depict how mysterious and scary it was to grow up in the 1930s, when girls were not given much or any information about sex or the changes in their bodies.Maud's dilemma in this book is also much more of a crisis for her than it would be in more modern times. Her decision at the end of the book is not one that every young woman should necessarily make, but my determined character insisted on it!
I found it so hard to let go of Polly and Maud that I’m now working on a third book in this series. It will be called SO HELP ME, GOD. It is set in the summer of 1951 and is told from the point of view of Maisie, Gregor and Sadie’s daughter, who is now fourteen.
