The Root Cellar

by Janet Lunn

Other authorsN. R. Jackson (Illustrator)

Paperback, 1996

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Publication

Puffin Books (1996), 240 pages

Description

Twelve-year-old orphan Rose, sent to live with unknown relatives on a farm in Canada, ventures into her aunt's root cellar and finds herself making friends with people who lived on the farm more than a century earlier.

User reviews

LibraryThing member AbigailAdams26

At one point in Janet Lunn's The Root Cellar - a time-slip adventure story first published in 1981, and considered a classic of modern Canadian children's literature - the heroine, Rose Larkin, lying in a quiet hospital room, recalling the terrible tales of war she had just been hearing that

afternoon, and reflecting on the deep and lasting hurt inflicted by that war on the soldiers who had fought in it, even on those who had survived, reflects with heartfelt grief: "Being a person's too hard...it's just too hard."

That hardness, that difficulty in being a "person" - of not knowing where you belong, or where you should want to belong, or who you even are; of not understanding all the complicated forces at work in the world, forces that sometimes help, but often wound, and still being subject to them - is at the heart of this story of a contemporary twelve-year-old girl who, at the death of the grandmother who had raised her, goes to stay with her aunt, uncle and cousins on a small Canadian island just across Lake Ontario from New York state, and finds herself continually thrown back into the past, to the time of the American Civil War.

Rose's adventures in the past, as she befriends Susan Anderson and Will Morrissey, who once lived in the very house her aunt and uncle now own; her journey south with Susan to discover Will's fate, when he runs off to enlist in the Union Army (being American on his mother's side), come to feel more real to her than her life with Aunt Nan and Uncle Bob, and her four (boy) cousins. But is the past, with all its pull, all its reality, truly where she belongs? The process whereby Rose discovers the answer to that question, learning quite a bit about herself in the process - that she can be "mean" (ie: greedy), but also generous, that she can work hard, and, when occasion demands, fight for her rights - make for a story that is as entertaining as it is moving.

I really enjoyed The Root Cellar, a book I have been meaning to read for some time now, and am glad it was chosen as our October selection, over in the International Books Club to which I belong, where we are currently "visiting" Canada. I'm especially glad that I had the chance to read this commemorative edition, with lovely full-page color plate illustrations by Scott Cameron! All in all, a wonderful reading experience! More than enough to convince me that I need to read more of Janet Lunn...

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LibraryThing member francescadefreitas

I had a hard time getting into this time slip book - I had no trouble putting it down for days at a time. Rose Larkin is used to being an orphan, carried about by her eccentric and cold grandmother. When her grandmother dies, she is sent to live with a houseful of cousins. She immediately get off

on the wrong foot with the family, and when she manages to periodically visit the 1860's through an old root cellar, Rose believes that that is the place she was really meant to live.
In the 1860's Rose makes friends, Will and Susan, but her happiness there is broken when Will goes off to join the American Civil War. When the war is over, and Will hasn't returned, Rose and Susan travel from Ontario to try and find him.
Rose isn't a very likeable character, and I never warmed to her. I though she was a brat, to the very end of the story. She compares herself to the heroine of The Secret Garden at one point, but unlike Mary Lennox, Rose doesn't become charming as the story progresses.
I'd give this to fans f historical stories, time slip stories, or stories about the US Civil War.

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LibraryThing member RockStarNinja

Probably my favorite book when I was in grade school and I read it at least a dozen times if not more. The funny thing about it looking back is that it has in it the three elements I hate most in books as an adult. A modern setting, American History, and Time travel.

LibraryThing member SueinCyprus

Rose is unhappy with her aunt and uncle, and discovers a door to previous centuries in the time of the US civil war. Lots of adventures ensue. Good plot, exciting and realistic people, surprises along the way. Suitable for older children or teenagers.

LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV

Time-travel gimmick used to explore history, for middle-grade/ upper elementary reader. From Canada, with the focus on the aftermath of the American Civil War. Quite exciting, for the plot and for the rich characters.

LibraryThing member ParadisePorch

A favourite of mine and of my daughter for decades.

LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey

Interesting book. It handles time travel better than a lot of books - even if it did it mostly by carefully not describing, say, Rose's first encounter with having to haul water from a well to wash dishes. Or with an outhouse (before toilet paper). And the lack of reaction to a girl wearing

trousers, from various people. Still, Rose's journey from isolated and badly-socialized child to someone willing to connect with others is nicely handled. I expected them to end up being her ancestors, but no, not quite. There's some horrific (though not detailed) descriptions of Civil War hospitals. The timelines are...interesting; Rose's first encounter with the past is possibly the last from the other end (though the Christmas dinner may have come after, hard to tell). And the way Rose skips around in her visits, too. It was interesting, definitely worth reading, possibly worth rereading.

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