The Root Cellar

infobox Book |
name = The Root Cellar
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Janet Lunn
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = Canada
language = English
series =
genre = Children's historical novel
publisher = Lester and Orpen Dennys
release_date = 1981
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 247 pp (first edition, paperback)
isbn = ISBN 0919630782
preceded_by =
followed_by =
Repeit Date =

"The Root Cellar" is a children's historical novel by Janet Lunn. It won the 1982 Canada Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award. [ [http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Book_of_the_Year_for_Children_Award&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=2501 CLA Book of the Year for Children Award - Past Winners] ]

Plot

Twelve-year-old Rose Larkin is an orphan from New York City, who originally lived with her grandmother, and travelled the world with her, while being homeschooled. After her grandmother dies in Paris, she is sent off to live with the Henrys and Aunt Nan in Hawthorn Bay in Ontario, relatives she's never met before.

Rose sees Mrs. Morrisay, but forgets to ask about her. She later sees a girl making the bed, but finds out that none of the Henrys know about this girl. After being miserable about the way her cousins are treating her, she flees down into a root cellar.

As Rose comes back up, she notices a girl named Susan Morrisay, who turns out to be the girl making the sheets. She later meets a boy named Will Morrisay. Susan and Will at first mistake her for a boy, due to the way she dresses. She finds out it is 1865. Will plays the flute, and Rose soon falls in love with him. They talk about the American Civil War going on south.

After going out of the cellar, she finds herself unable to go back down. Meanwhile, Sam, one of her cousins, notices a ghost like an old lady, but Aunt Nan thinks it was just a shadow. Later, Rose meets Mrs. Morrisay again. She goes to Tom, a neighbour, and asks about the people that lived in her new home long ago. He mentions the Morrisays, but also says that the last one died years ago. Mrs. Morrisay says she isn't a ghost, but "shifts".

Rose is still unable to make friends at school, which her relatives sent her to. She tries to go back into the root cellar, but finds a dead rat and is unable to. She later remembers that when a hawthorn tree's shadow lines up with a crack in the cellar, she shifts back in time. By then, years have passed from 1865, and Will and Susan are arguing because Will wants to go to war, and his cousin Steve Jerue signed up as well. Horrified, Rose goes back into her own time.

Some time later, Rose returns to Susan, where months have passed for Susan but only weeks for Rose. Susan is surprised to meet Rose again, and says she is good luck. Rose admits to hiding and hearing the conversation between Rose and Susan. Rose and Susan exchange keepsakes, Rose gives Susan her rose amulet, while Susan gives her Will's music. Rose sneaks onto her cousins' car while they journey to Oswego. Bob explains that he had been unkind earlier because he had always wanted to go on a trip to Italy, but when Rose came it was cancelled.

Rose looks in the records with a historical site museum keeper, and find Will and Steve's names on the list of the 81st Regiment. Aunt Nan is very angry at Rose, and also about the unsent note to Aunt Millicent she wrote earlier about the Henrys being all mad. Rose tries to walk away, but Aunt Nan, who is pregnant, tries to walk after her but slips on the wet grass, and breaks some bones. Rose is angry about almost killing her, but maintains that she didn't.

Rose flees down into the root cellar. Three weeks have passed for both Rose and Susan. They decide to journey into the United States and use the money that was originally intended for Susan's future marriage. They pretend that Rose's name is David, a boy, named after Rose's former father, so that they will be safer to make people think that Susan has protection.

They take a schooner down into Oswego, where Min Jerue, Steve's mother, lives. They tell her about Will, but she reminds them not to go after them. One of Min Jerue's sons comes with them, but Rose and Susan pretend they are not going on a train. They go on a train, then the boy notices they sneaked away. Min Jerue comes just before Rose and Susan depart on the train, but she is too late. Susan gives Rose twenty-five cents to get a drink, but Susan wouldn't have any because the lemonade cost a whole five cents.

After they get off the train at Syracuse to change trains, they find out that they left all their money and belongings on the train and couldn't get back because of a drunken man. They decide to walk down the Hudson River towards New York, but Rose is so mad at Susan for forgetting the money that she uses the remaining 20 cents all for herself to buy food. Susan finds out what Rose had done, and is disappointed.

Rose and Susan try to find some jobs, and try to get seven dollars. They work wherever they can, and Rose even worked as a blacksmith. After Rose finds out how little money she is getting, she snatches some money from one of the people. They run after her, but Rose runs as fast as she can and gets away with eleven dollars. She meets a man who is on her side, and he finds Susan for her. They find that they have enough money and take a train to New York.

After getting to New York, Rose realises that New York, a place she was from, actually was 19th-century, and reaches a sudden shocking realisation that all this is real, and that her previous endeavours were because she thought it wasn't.

They continue to Jersey City, then to Washington. They try to search the hospitals, and sometimes help out the hospitals by volunteering there. Everyone tells them they'd better look in the Cemetery for Will. One of the nurses tells them about a soldier who became miserable after his friend died. They think it might be Will. They keep searching, and suddenly, they see a figure walking towards them.

The figure and Susan recognise each other, and they find out it's Will. He talks about what had happened during the war, and that Steve had died. He talks about how Steve was very enthusiastic, but after twleve days of intense fighting, many comrades were lying dead around them, including a nine-year-old fifer. He talks about how he and Steve were originally intended to be musicians for the troops there, Will a fluter and Steve a drummer, but they were later slotted to be soldiers anyway.

Later, Steve was shot in the arm, developed a disease, and later died. Will also talks about a boy from Tennessee with a knife, but Will grabbed the knife, they had a fight, and Will decided it would be wrong to kill him. After Will finishes telling the stories, it is dark, and Rose is crying. Susan and Rose tell him to come back to Hawthorn Bay, but Will is reluctant at first because he made a promise for Steve that he would always stay by his side.

Susan, Will, and Rose make it back to Oswego, and arrive at Min Jerue's house. She finds out about what had happened during the war. She is disappointed about Rose and Susan sneaking off. She inspects "David" and finds that he is not a boy. Rose admits that she is Rose Larkin, and one of Min Jerue's children are shocked that Rose worked as a blacksmith, even though she was a girl.

They journey back to Hawthorn Bay, but get caught in a storm. As they make it back, the area had flooded and the root cellar is under water. Rose climbs off Will's back and out of the root cellar, but fails at first to go back to Aunt Nan's place.

Later, the Root Cellar is still filled with water, but she finds out that she is back to the present, and there is a big storm. Although weeks had passed for Rose, only hours had passed for her cousins, and she returned on the same day as the accident. Aunt Nan is no longer angry at Rose. A tree collapses onto the root cellar.

It is almost Christmas, and Rose gets a cookbook dated 1857 from Tom, and it is his grandmother's cookbook. Rose finds that most of the recipes were disappointing, and her cousins disliked most of them. On Christmas, she tries to cook a goose, but overburns it.

After everybody is invited, she reveals the kitchen, but discovers that everything had been decorated and the food was well beyond what Rose had actually made. She thinks Susan had prepared it, and tells everybody, and shows the burned goose for evidence. Later, Rose meets Mrs. Morrisay, and finds out that she prepared it.

Mrs. Morrisay turns out to be Susan. She tells Rose that she and Will had gotten married, and that Will lived to be sixty. Mrs. Morrisay soon vanishes again, and Rose realises she will never see Will or Susan again.

ee also

*American Civil War

References