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Saara’s Passage
Saara's Passage by Karen Autio (Sono Nis $13.95)
ages 10+
Her grandmother' silver sugar spoon started Karen Autio on the path to two children's novels about the history of Finnish settlement in Canada.
The spoon had belonged to her grandmother's friend, who claimed it had been saved from the Titanic. The spoon led Autio to another story about the woman's relatives, who died when the Empress of Ireland sunk in the St. Lawrence River in 1914.
"When I found out it was Canada's worst nautical disaster in peacetime," says Autio, "I couldn't believe I'd never heard of it." She began researching the Empress of Ireland and discovered the ship had brought more than 100,000 European immigrants to Canada. "I realized, wow, there's a lot of material here. Maybe it could be a novel."
Seven years later, she released Second Watch (Sono Nis 2005), in which 12-year-old Saara Môki is en route to Finland aboard the doomed Empress of Ireland-and she survives the catastrophic voyage.
In its sequel, Saara's Passage, her return to northwestern Ontario is complicated by the necessity of having her beloved Aunt Marja move to the sanatorium in Toronto for treatment of tuberculosis, leaving Baby Sanni in need of a caregiver.
The story was inspired by the experience of Autio's grandmother, who had to leave her baby-Karen Autio's mother-with her husband at their farm near Thunder Bay while she was treated in a Toronto sanatorium. Her grandmother never talked about the tragedy, but Autio pieced together the story from other family members.
Her grandmother, who had emigrated from Finland only five years before, was miserable in the sanatorium and eventually discharged herself against her doctor's orders. She returned home, living alone in a barn so no one else would be infected.
"She had to spend the next couple of years apart from my mother, watching other women care for her child,"; says Autio. She eventually recovered. When she died at age 86, she left letters she had written to the baby when she expected to die from tuberculosis.
"It was just soul-bearing,"; says Autio, her voice choking with emotion. "My mom translated them for me into English so I could read these letters. At that point, I had to know more about what had happened."
Saara's Passage provides an authentic portrayal of a bygone era in Ontario, including the socialist history of Finnish immigrants. Although the characters came from her imagination, she gleaned details about daily life from interviews with seniors as well as research at the archives of Lakehead University and the museum at Thunder Bay, where she grew up. "I am a stickler for the details and being accurate to the time period," says Autio.
Autio studied math and computer science at the University of Waterloo, which led to jobs in software development for major corporations, including Shell Canada and MacDonald, Dettwiler, an information-services company.She moved to Kelowna in 1996, after living in Calgary and the Lower Mainland with her husband, Will, also a software developer. Her first child Annaliis is now 21. Autio started writing ten years ago when her son Stefan started school.
978-1-55039-167-1
[By Portia Priegert / BCBW 2009].
ages 10+
Her grandmother' silver sugar spoon started Karen Autio on the path to two children's novels about the history of Finnish settlement in Canada.
The spoon had belonged to her grandmother's friend, who claimed it had been saved from the Titanic. The spoon led Autio to another story about the woman's relatives, who died when the Empress of Ireland sunk in the St. Lawrence River in 1914.
"When I found out it was Canada's worst nautical disaster in peacetime," says Autio, "I couldn't believe I'd never heard of it." She began researching the Empress of Ireland and discovered the ship had brought more than 100,000 European immigrants to Canada. "I realized, wow, there's a lot of material here. Maybe it could be a novel."
Seven years later, she released Second Watch (Sono Nis 2005), in which 12-year-old Saara Môki is en route to Finland aboard the doomed Empress of Ireland-and she survives the catastrophic voyage.
In its sequel, Saara's Passage, her return to northwestern Ontario is complicated by the necessity of having her beloved Aunt Marja move to the sanatorium in Toronto for treatment of tuberculosis, leaving Baby Sanni in need of a caregiver.
The story was inspired by the experience of Autio's grandmother, who had to leave her baby-Karen Autio's mother-with her husband at their farm near Thunder Bay while she was treated in a Toronto sanatorium. Her grandmother never talked about the tragedy, but Autio pieced together the story from other family members.
Her grandmother, who had emigrated from Finland only five years before, was miserable in the sanatorium and eventually discharged herself against her doctor's orders. She returned home, living alone in a barn so no one else would be infected.
"She had to spend the next couple of years apart from my mother, watching other women care for her child,"; says Autio. She eventually recovered. When she died at age 86, she left letters she had written to the baby when she expected to die from tuberculosis.
"It was just soul-bearing,"; says Autio, her voice choking with emotion. "My mom translated them for me into English so I could read these letters. At that point, I had to know more about what had happened."
Saara's Passage provides an authentic portrayal of a bygone era in Ontario, including the socialist history of Finnish immigrants. Although the characters came from her imagination, she gleaned details about daily life from interviews with seniors as well as research at the archives of Lakehead University and the museum at Thunder Bay, where she grew up. "I am a stickler for the details and being accurate to the time period," says Autio.
Autio studied math and computer science at the University of Waterloo, which led to jobs in software development for major corporations, including Shell Canada and MacDonald, Dettwiler, an information-services company.She moved to Kelowna in 1996, after living in Calgary and the Lower Mainland with her husband, Will, also a software developer. Her first child Annaliis is now 21. Autio started writing ten years ago when her son Stefan started school.
978-1-55039-167-1
[By Portia Priegert / BCBW 2009].
Submitted on January 21, 2009 in By David.
