Interactive Historical Fiction e-books

The Sea Pair by Patricia Beatty

A boy growing up on an Indian reservation has few occupations open to him. In this story of the reservation life on the coast of Washington, in the early 1940’s, Patricia Beatty dramatises the difficulties a Quileute Native American boy named Roy Adams encounters trying to realise his modest ambition of becoming an automobile mechanic.

The arrival of a new teacher, Miss Green, coincides with the appearance of a pair of sea otters, mother and pup, on the offshore waters. These originally unconnected events both raise problems for Roy, an in the course of their resolution the author draws a subtle parallel between the relationship of the nearly extinct animals to each other and the hostile, suspicious boy to the dispassionate, determined teacher. Just as the pup needs his mother’s protection from marauders, so Roy Adams needs his teacher’s help to escape from his brutalising environment.

Mrs. Beatty lived in the Quileute village of La Push, Washington, for four years, and the first-hand knowledge of her characters and setting shows in every word of this compelling novel.