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by Jane Hikel (Author)
As displaced persons after World War II, the Piech Family chose not to return to their home in Poland, but continued from an army camp in Italy, to a Polish Dependents camp in England, finally immigrating to Canada. Despite the tragic losses suffered during the war, the author's parents begin life with hope in this new land. As a precocious five-year-old she adapts to living in the multi-ethnic borough of Ville Emard in Montreal.
She learns a new language, experiences prejudice, gets locked in a church, develops a life-long friendship, and spends evenings sitting with her father on the balcony observing the human traffic below their three-story tenement.
There is humor in her perspective as she observes life from the margins, tries to understand the confusing world of adults, and works on a plan to one day be fully independent.
