Born in a Red Canoe

A very young ill-treat­ed girl finds her­self on a suc­cess­ful jour­ney of self-dis­cov­ery. Once again, Katharine John­son has pro­duced a won­der­ful sto­ry that sur­pass­es the tra­di­tion­al “com­ing of age” jour­nal. This one fea­tures Purslane, a neglect­ed child fight­ing for rel­e­vance and self-under­stand­ing, along with a cast of munif­i­cent­ly described characters–the pota­to cake woman, the bird woman, a for­tune teller, Ossi, Lamb-i-kins, and many more. While each char­ac­ter becomes vivid­ly alive, Purslane, rather than a cast-off help­less weed in this gar­den of char­ac­ters, real­izes her true val­ue as a per­son with inner strength and emerg­ing val­ues. This sto­ry, as in Johnson’s The Wind and the Drum nov­el, is well-researched and expert­ly writ­ten, meld­ing fine fic­tion and the cre­ativ­i­ty of a super­nat­ur­al expe­ri­ence. This read­er is left with the thirst and desire for a sequel. (Ama­zon reader)