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Annotated Award-Winning Titles

		R. Ross Annett Juvenile Fiction Award 2006 (Writers Guild of Alberta) For the best children's book by an Alberta author A Kind of Courage Colleen Heffernan Victoria, B.C.: Orca Book Publishers, 2005. 150 p. ISBN 1551433583 Ages 12 and up
A Kind of Courage Source

Hattie Tamblyn lives on a farm with her parents and her younger brother Johnny. Her older brother Will has gone off to war. To help out with the work, Hattie's father has hired David Ross, a young man who has a reputation for being a coward. David is in fact a conscientious objector who has refused to fight in the war. The hiring of this young man has greatly upset Hattie and Johnny, who consider it a betrayal of their older brother. Nevertheless, a friendship develops between David and Hattie, and she gradually begins to understand that there are different kinds of bravery.

This is Colleen Heffernan's first novel for young adult readers, after publishing two books and several pieces of short fiction for young readers. While the premise of the novel is interesting, the depth of adolescent emotion is not fully explored.

–FO