In Somewhere I Belong, we meet young P.J. Kavanaugh at North Boston Station. His father has died, the Depression is on, and his mother is moving them back home. They settle in, and P.J. makes new friends. But the P.E.I. winter is harsh, the farm chores endless, and his teacher a drunken bully. He soon wants to go home; the problem is how.

A letter arrives from Aunt Mayme announcing a Babe Ruth charity baseball game in the old neighbourhood. But Ma won’t let him go. P.J is devastated. The weeks pass, then there is an accident on the farm. P.J. becomes a hero and Ma changes her mind. He travels to Boston, sees his friends, watches Babe Ruth hit a home run, and renews his attachment to the place. But his eagerness to return to the Island makes him wonder where he really belongs.

Glenna Jenkins is a writer and editor whose Prince Edward Island roots date back to the early 1800s. Although she comes from a hockey family, she doesn’t claim to have athletic abilities aside from having completed several marathons, triathlons, and cycling gran fondos, and a recent ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Her literary work includes Somewhere I Belong, historical fiction published by Acorn Press Canada and listed in Best Books for Kids & Teens, 2016, and a number of short stories published in anthologies by Acorn Press Canada and MacIntyre Purcell Publishing. In 2016, she won the Atlantic Canada writing competition for memoir. She is presently completing her second novel, a sequel to Somewhere I Belong. She lives in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, with her husband, John.

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A Welcome New Voice

by rockbound