She does not shy away from depicting the losses that Marguerite suffers at the beginning of the story - the death of her Oncle Pierre on the sea voyage from France, and the slow decline of her Grand'mère in Massachusetts, where the two find themselves on the Poor Farm - nor does she spare the Sargents, who lose baby Debby in a horrible accident in which she crawls into the fire late one night.

Life in colonial days was harsh, particularly outside of the larger urban settlements, and Field captures that here, with her tale of a young orphaned girl adrift in a world of strangers. I found Calico Bush - so named because the 'calico bush' flower (also known as mountain laurel), and the ballad named for it, have significance in the story - to be an immensely engaging work of fiction: engrossing, often quite moving, and historically realistic. When her many acts of courage and kindness are unexpectedly rewarded, and she is given the opportunity to rejoin 'her kind' in Quebec, she must decide who she really is, and where she belongs.

She must also contend with her fellow settlers hostility to her, on account of her French background. Sargent plans to occupy a claim he had only recently purchased, Marguerite - now known as 'Maggie' - finds her courage put to the test on more than one occasion, as she must rescue the family cow from drowning, confront a bear intent on attacking the Sargent children, and think quickly in order to defuse tension, when a party of potentially hostile Indians appears. Accompanying the Sargents to the Maine wilderness, where Mr. First published in 1931, and chosen as a Newbery Honor Book in 1932 - Rachel Field had already been awarded the Newbery Medal itself in 1930, for Hitty: Her First Hundred Years - this work of historical fiction for young readers opens in June of 1743, and chronicles one year in the life of Marguerite Ledoux, an orphaned young French girl who, finding herself destitute in Marblehead, Massachusetts, becomes a 'Bound-out Girl' for the Sargent family.

Calico bush by rachel field