Nevers

Nevers
ISBN: 9781459821637
Publication Date: 1 December 2019

Resourceful fourteen-year-old Odette is on the move again, traveling as a stowaway on a cheese cart with her hapless mother, Anneline. They are in Burgundy, France, in 1799, fleeing yet another calamity caused by Anneline (who is prone to killing people accidentally). At dawn they find themselves in a town called Nevers, which is filled with eccentric characters, including a man who obsessively smells hands, another who dreams of becoming a chicken, and a donkey that keeps the town awake at night, braying about his narrow life.

As Odette establishes a home in an abandoned guardhouse, she makes a friend in the relaxed Nicois and finds work as a midwife's assistant. She and Nicois uncover a mystery that may lead to riches and, more important for Odette, a sense of belonging.

About the Author

Sara Cassidy has worked as a youth-hostel manager, a newspaper reporter and a tree planter, in five Canadian provinces. Her books have been short-listed for the Chocolate Lily Award, the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award, the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature and the Bolen Books Children's Book Prize, and two were Junior Library Guild selections. Her poetry, fiction and nonfiction for adults have been widely published.