Lullabies for Little Children

Set in a small town in New Brunswick, the novel follows one family and the challenges they face. Joe Walsh, is isolated and strong in the face of a drinking problem; his wife, Rita is willing to believe the best about people; and their teenage daughter Adele has a nature that is rebellious and wise, and a love for her father wars with her desire for independence.

On the surface, Funny Boy doesn’t appear to have much in common with Lullabies. Set in Sri Lanka and featuring a much less dysfunctional family, it nevertheless follows a child, Arjie, growing up and facing much adversity. In this case, it’s his own homosexuality and the racism of the society in which he lives. Like Baby, Arjie must also confront violence in his life; in his case the encroaching civil war between the government and the Tamil Tigers.

The mother/daughter relationship in the book parallels the father/daughter relationship in Lullabies. Eileen Hoffman has a predilection for booze and pills that has brought her down and forced her to apply for welfare. When Children and Social Services threatens to apprehend her youngest daughter Grace (the oldest has already run away), mother and daughter must confront their demons and get their lives back on track.

Seventeen year-old Grace has an eccentric family. Mom is obsessive-compulsive, brother is almost permanently ensconced in a haze of pot smoke and dad toils in his basement hoping the next invention will lead to his big break. Like Baby, Grace is drawn towards more normal families in a search of a refuge of love and acceptance. Normal, however, isn’t always what it appears to be.

Kit’s Law tells the story of three generations of women: Lizzy, Josie and Kit. When Lizzy, grandmother dies, the local pastor decides that Josie is not a fit mother and needs to be institutionalized and wants to put Kit in an orphanage. The local doctor becomes their staunch defender against both do-gooders and those plotting Kit’s downfall. Like Baby, Kit must navigate a complicated family and an unforgiving society seeking to control her.

Against the stark and haunting landscape of Canada's Far North, fifteen-year-old Trista chronicles the events of her life from her room in the Polar Girls' Prison. Caught in the decline of sexual abuse, drunkenness, and failed motherhood, Trista tries to make sense of her past, especially the events that led her to jail.

When he’s seven years old, Freddy's mother leaves him on a bench at the train station. In a few short days, everything changes. Ten years later, Freddy is struggling to get through his last year of high school. But then Saskia appears, and she’s different from the laughing little girl he remembers. She no longer smiles, and she doesn’t speak. As they reconnect, Freddy begins to remember what really happened ten years ago.

Abandoned as an infant, ten-year-old Chamdi has spent his entire life in a Bombay orphanage. Chamdi’s quiet life takes a sudden turn, however, when he learns that the orphanage will be shut down. He decides that he must run away in search of his long-lost father. Outside Chamdi quickly discovers that Bombay is nothing like Kahunsha. The streets are filthy and devoid of colour, and no one shows him an ounce of kindness.

Seventeen-year-old Sylvia (Harper) Kostak is caught between her mother’s regrets and the strictures of small-town life in the interior of British Columbia. When Harper meets Gabe she is transfixed. Harper eventually finds herself, setting in motion a series of events leading to tragedy. The novel brings alive the agonies and ecstasies of growing up, sexual discovery, and how the need to belong can shape both decisions and destinies.