Erminie

Erminie Menard is 16, lonely and in a bit of trouble. She's about to be sent off to reform school. But that isn't the start of her troubles, nor will it be the end of them. Caught between her French Canadian background and her small-town Vermont upbringing, all she really wants is to escape to Boston, meet a boy and have a family of her own. Fate and her mother, though, have other ideas. Set in Vermont and Montreal, this novel follows Erminie from 1906 to 1948. As she grapples with a rigid social system and a dysfunctional family she learns that sometimes you have to abandon what you thought life would be like to appreciate the one you have.