Dear Reader
Writing A Sea of Sorrows was completely different from any other writing I have ever tackled. So why did I do it? What prompted me to attempt my first-ever historical novel?
I blame my mother.
My mother has spent many years tracing her family history. One of the many things she discovered in her search was that her great-grandmother — and my great-great-grandmother — left Ireland during the potato famine in the late 1840s. She died either on board ship or shortly after landing in Canada.
One day, long after Scholastic launched its Dear Canada series, it occurred to me that my mother, who is an avid reader, might be interested in reading a Dear Canada book that dealt with the famine that brought many, many Irish people to Canada. But when I searched the Scholastic website, I couldn’t find a Dear Canada about this. So I emailed my editor at Scholastic — and was surprised to learn that no such book had been written or was scheduled. She asked me if I might be interested. I said yes, and began a whole new challenge.
Fortunately, I love history. I have a degree in it from McGill University and have never lost my interest in reading about the past. So I dove in. Not only did I read every book I could find on the subject of the famine, the plague ships that claimed the lives of so many poor and starving emigrants from Ireland, and what awaited them on the other side of the ocean, but I also scoured the library for diaries, contemporary accounts and newspapers from the era. It was a fascinating journey, and I ended up with far more material than I could use in my book. It allowed me — and I hope it will allow readers — to get some sense of the courage that was required of new immigrants to Canada and the physical and spiritual strength they needed to build new lives for themselves and their loved ones. It also gave me some connection to a woman — my great-great-grandmother — whom I had never met.
- Norah McClintock
