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Annotated Award-Winning Titles

The Hackmatack Book Award
(Atlantic Canadian book award)
Children's choice
French novel category
La butte à Pétard
Diane Carmel Léger
Illustrations: Michel Léger
Moncton, New Brunswick: Bouton d'or Acadie,
2004. 119 p.
(Collection météore)
ISBN 2922203700
Ages 8 to 10

La butte à Pétard
Source

This historical novel is set in the year of 1755 in Acadia, when some 10,000 people were exiled. As the English soldiers approach, Fidèle and his sister Prémelia regretfully follow their grandfather Pétard into the forest, taking only a few items with them. Jacques, their father, will join them as soon as their mother has recovered from giving birth. Unfortunately, both parents are taken prisoner.

Along the way, Pétard and his grandchildren meet the widow Rosalie. Their exile in the woods far from their land was to be temporary, but lasts eight years. Pétard and his family survive thanks to the advice given to him by Kitpou, their Mi'kmaq friend. They learn to build a cabin, to hunt and to gather birch bark for firewood. At the end of the war, Prémelia and her grandfather return to their farm. The young Fidèle goes off to search for her parents with Beausoleil Broussard.

Almost 20 years later, several members of the family, Fidèle, Jacques and Pétard, return to their homestead. This novel pays homage to Acadians, particularly to their determination and love for their native land.

–JP