Winner of the 2005 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award

It is 1901 and Mable Riley dreams of adventure and of becoming a writer. When her older sister leaves home to become a schoolmistress in the small town of Stratford, Ontario, Mable is sent along too. Mable hopes her new world will be full of peril and romance. But life at the Goodhand Farm (where the sisters board), is as humdrum as the one she’s left behind.

Then Mable encounters the mysterious Mrs. Rattle, a peculiar widow with a taste for upsetting the townspeople with her strange opinions. Mrs. Rattle is a real writer, and Mable eagerly accepts her invitation to a meeting of the Ladies Reading Society. But the ladies are not discussing books at all, and Mable may soon have more peril than she’d bargained for!

Composed of the letters Mable sends home, the poems she writes for her classmates, and chapters from her own work-in-progress, Mable Riley is the funny, inspiring, (and reliable) record of a young girl finding her voice, and the courage to make it heard.

Marthe Jocelyn is the award-winning author and illustrator of over thirty-five books for babies, kids and teens. Her illustrated books have been shortlisted for both the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. In 2009 she was the recipient of the prestigious Vicky Metcalf Award for her body of work. One Red Button and One Piece of String are the result of her lifelong obsession with scraps, and her delight in surprising the reader with unexpected details. Originally from Toronto, Marthe settled in Stratford, Ontario, after a thirtyyear stretch in New York. For more information, visit www.marthejocelyn.com.

Marthe Jocelyn's profile page

• Nominated, Silver Birch Award for Fiction

“…a lovely addition to the…tradition of Canadian historical fiction for girls… Rather than struggling within a diarist’s constraints…Jocelyn seamlessly slides into the first-person narrative of a conventional novel… [Jocelyn] is a quietly confident storyteller.”
–Quill & Quire
“…this novel is a delightful elixir of Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Avonlea….”
— School Library Journal

“… a funny and inspiring tale of a young girl finding her voice and the courage to make it heard.… This book makes the early suffragette history engaging and entertaining, and it will be enjoyed by all who read it.”
— VOYA