Scatterbrained, incorrigible and irrepressible - Booky will win you over in this Canadian classic set in Depression-era Toronto.

It's almost 1933 and the Great Depression has hit the east end of Toronto. Booky's father can't find work; her mother is expecting another baby; the bailiff keeps threatening to evict the family from their home; and her older brother Arthur is terribly annoying. Yes, life is full of setbacks.

But through the eyes of Booky Thomson the world has an energetic, rosy tinge: there are street games to play at night with the neighbourhood kids; butter and white sugar sandwiches; important talks with her Grandpa; riding the streetcar to her Aunt Susan's nut and candy shop; and an oh-so-special afternoon at the talking picture show. And soon, soon, she knows her parents will stop fighting, her hunger pangs will subside, and her family will laugh again.

With nostalgic black-and-white photos from the era throughout, this treasure of a book offers an authentic, poignant glimpse into one family's struggle to stay together when the world around them was falling apart.

Bernice Thurman Hunter's profile page

• Short-listed, City of Toronto Award
• Winner, IODE Toronto Award

Bernice Thurman Hunter was born in 1922. She spent her adult years as an Eaton's employee, and did not publish her first book, That Scatterbrain Booky, until 1981, when she was a grandmother. She went on to write many more highly acclaimed historical novels: two more in the Booky series, and the equally successful margaret series. She received the 1989 Vicky Metcalk Award for her body of work, and was made a Member of the Order of Canada shortly before her death in 2002.