Author: Maria Pavel. Published by Trafford Publishing, 2005, 1st Edition. Printed in Canada. Almost New Condition SOFTCOVER Book, with light cover scuff, and three pages corner dog-eared. Clean inside, tight spine. Size: 8 x 5.5 inch, 228 pages.
CALL ME JIM, by Maria Pavel, is a story about growing up poor, and any young or old reading this novel would gain an appreciation of factors influencing a youth's life: family, society, environment, government.
In the 1920s, the Campbells move west to the isolated wilderness of northern Alberta to begin a new life of homesteading. With the depression engulfing Canada and the United States, the family struggles with poverty and staying alive under harsh conditions. A neighboring family of Indian ancestry provides needed food and advice. For little Jimmy, this friendship introduces him to wildlife lore and a respect for all the natural kingdom.
Jimmy comes to know tragedy and hardship. The family's shanty burns to the ground in mid-winter. Dad suffers from personal depression and suicidal thoughts. Mum must leave the family for medical treatment for weeks at a time. Jimmy is thought to be near death and is rushed to a remote hospital by a trapper with a dogsled. Yet there are times of delight and joy: catching fish, eating an apple, riding a bike up and down mountains, listening to animals in the woods, skinny dipping. He is shocked and awed by the beauty of the mountains, and books and the world outside of his area begin to fascinate him.
