Our Canadian Girl: Emily

Series · 4 books · 2001-2004

By Julie Lawson

Books in series

Across the James Bay Bridge

2001

It's 1896 and Emily lives a middle-class life in Victoria, B.C., with her parents and two little sisters. She becomes friends with Hing, the family's Chinese servant and, through that relationship, discovers the secret world of Victoria's Chinatown. She also begins to understand the disparity between those like herself who have much, and those, like Hing and the family he left behind in China, who have little.

Disaster at the Bridge

2002

Emily Murdoch is looking forward to one of her favourite times of the the four-day celebration of Queen Victoria's birthday. Her excitement at the approaching festivities is tempered by her disappointment that her coveted bicycle may now be an impossibility and that Hing has decided to leave the Murdoch household. She has also had a falling-out with her best friend, Alice. On May 26, Emily, her family and friends climb on board streetcars for the ride to Esquimalt to witness the climax of the holiday celebrations. As Car 16 rolls onto the Point Ellice Bridge, the centre span of the bridge collapses, and the streetcar—packed with more than 120 passengers—plunges into the Gorge.

Building Bridges

2003

In Emily: Building Bridges, Hing's family finally arrives and Emily at last meets Mei Yuk, Hing's daughter. After a rocky start, the two girls become fast friends. But as Emily begins to include Mei Yuk in her social life, she finds things changing between her and Alice, her best friend. Inspired by her art teacher, a young Emily Carr, Emily learns the importance of staying true to oneself. She also learns the meaning of tolerance and friendshi

Summer of Gold

2004

Emily greets the summer holiday with mixed feelings: while there’s no more school, there’s also no Alice to play with ever since Alice’s parents forbade their friendship. But summer holds out new promise with Emily’s discovery of a dog on the beach. Near death when she spots him and with no one to claim him, it doesn’t take long before Emily’s tender-loving care restores him to his happy and healthy self. In fact, Sam is such a great dog that soon Emily worries that he may be dognapped! Victoria has just been hit with gold fever and men are thronging into the city from Seattle to grab gear—and good dogs if they can find them—before heading up north to the Klondike to get rich. The gold rush, it seems, can change everyone’s fortunes—even those of a dog!

Author

Julie Lawson

Author · 23 books

Julie Lawson is the award-winning author of many books for young people. Her novels include White Jade Tiger (winner of the Sheila A. Egoff Book Literature Prize and nominated for both the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award and the Silver Birch Award), Destination Gold, and The Ghost of Avalanche Mountain. Among her acclaimed picture books are The Dragon’s Pearl, Emma and the Silk Train, Bear on the Train, and Whatever You Do, Don’t Go Near That Canoe! Her most recent novel, Ghosts of the Titanic, was released in Spring 2011. Some of the events written about in A Ribbon of Shining Steel were based on the real-life experiences of Julie’s own grandfather, John Anderson, who was among the many immigrants needed to keep the CPR running smoothly. Julie lives in Victoria, British Columbia.