I was excited at this possible solution to the intriguing mystery, but at the risk of being a wet blankent, I don’t think the Ruth Arthur book sounds like what the OP originally had in mind. Compare the two descriptions:
“Girl in orphanage on Suffolk coast” doesn’t quite sound like “girl goes to live with father on eastern North American coast”. There seems to be no indication that the alter-ego viking girl Estrith in the Ruth Arthur book is an adult or has a lover. Also, there’s no mysterious witchy woman, and the setting is an orphanage where presumably there’d be quite a few other children around, not a girl living in isolation with a father whom she dislikes.
But childhood memories can be very fluid, so the OP should definitely get the book and tell us if it’s the one she remembers!
It doesn’t look like there’s anything closer than Fresno, although I’m not really familiar with California county names so some of these county libraries may be somewhere in your area. Here’s all the holdings I found for CA in WorldCat. This list may not be totally accurate – WorldCat was showing this book as being owned by the public library in the next county over from mine, but I just checked that library’s online catalog and didn’t see it there.
Butte County Library
California State University, Fresno
Colusa County Free Library
Nevada County Library
Oxnard Public Library
San Jose State University
Shasta Public Library
Sutter County Library
If you are affiliated with UC Berkeley then I’m sure their library could get a copy for you through Inter-Library Loan. Your local public library may or may not be able to do the same. However, it’s likely a used copy from Amazon would be faster.
Yeah- it sounds like I did quite manufacture some of those memories when I tried to dig details out of my mind- but yes, this does, in fact, sound like the book…
I have tried other books that sounded right, however, and they weren’t it.
I will let you all know!
(By the way- I let it slide a couple times, but I am a male :))
Yes- I think I will just order the amazon copy. I just wish they had a digital edition, though it would likely cost more.
I seem to recall that it was her dad she lived with, and she hated being around him, and I don’t recall any children other than her and I think an older boy who had a crush on her.
But the part about the ship being where it wouldn’t fit is perfect…
I don’t know. Now I am leaning towards it not being correct, but how many norse dreams can there be in young adult lit?
I really just need to read the drowning scene and see.
Well, it is possible that you’re conflating two different books and that the Viking element was one book and the living with dad thing was another. When I was in library school our department library had a big collection of children’s and YA novels for people studying to be youth librarians, and although I wasn’t in that track I re-read a number of books that I’d remembered liking as a kid. In some cases I was surprised to find that I’d totally forgotten the majority of the story, or that I’d misunderstood some important plot point the first time around.
This is true, Lamia- and I really hate seeing proof that my memory is not working correctly all the time. It makes me wonder if everyone should get everything in writing ALL THE TIME. Forget fraud- it is the simple human condition to err. Wait… that sounds familar… and I circled my way around to first principles!
That is great! I am pretty sure fair use would allow the excerpt to be shown of that single page- so if you could pm me or even post a link to it here, if board allows, I would appreciate it greatly!
Thanks, Snickers! (are you named after the candy bar, the tough in Hudson Hawk that was named after the candy, or do you just giggle softly and sharply to yourself? Often? With darting eyes? With a blood-wet chin? )
Well, I was hoping for an excerpt of it, and then realized that I could just order it for less than $5, so I did just place the order at Amazon.
I won’t have it for a week or two, though, so go ahead and send me some info, snickers or dangermom, if either of you get it before me. It was a good book, so don’t NOT read it just because I have a copy on the way.
Good news gurujulp. I think you will indeed find that On The Wasteland is the book you are looking for. I just finished rereading it at the library - unfortunately it is on non-circulating loan, and I could only have it out for an hour, but it refreshed my memory and jibes with much of what you remember. Highlights:
Our main character is a 12 year old orphan, Bettony, also known as Gipsy, a nickname which she hates. Her mom died in childbirth with a boy when Bettony was younger, and she ends up being raised by her stepdad, who’s abusive, a drunk and a wastrel. The two of them (and Bettony’s beloved collie, Sparks) roam the British countryside looking for work and food, until one day they end up in Suffolk, where Bettony’s mom is from. She takes this opportunity to make a break from her stepdad, and runs away.
She’s found by a nice young woman who works at an orphanage, and is taken to the orphanage. The place is run by Mrs. John, a stern but caring woman who reluctantly takes both Bettony and her dog in. The other children think she’s weird though, and call her Gipsy because of her wandering past.
Because she doesn’t get along with the other children, Bettony spends her time playing with Sparks and exploring along the countryside. One day her dog is hit by a car, and she buries him alone alongside the road. Now she’s well and truly alone in the world, and begins to break down.
On her wanderings she meets an old woman, Yetty, who lives in an upside down boat along the beach. Yetty lives with her husband, and tells Bettony tales of Suffolk and the magic in the area. She also warns Bettony to stay away from “The Pool” a foot deep patch water known for mysterious drownings amd hauntings. Of course, Bettony’s curiosity is piqued.
Walking back to the orphanage from Yetty’s house, she runs into a group of boys who seem menacing, but mysteriously back off once they start to approach her. She later runs into one of them, a boy named Orlando, who tells her that they were going to start pranking her until a big scary collie started following her. Bettony believes it’s the ghost of Sparks protecting her, and starts to think maybe the magic is real after all. She and Orlando start to become friends, and perhaps more.
She finally discovers the Pool she was warned about, and begins to see the boat. I think it’s triggered by standing under a magic birch tree. The visions of the Viking boat and village become more and more real, until one day she’s actually in the village while it’s under attack. She’s hurt in the Viking village, and then wakes up back in the real world with a bruise on her arm.
She returns to the magic tree at the Pool more and more, and in time realizes that in the Viking world she’s Estrith, the village princess. In the dream world she has everything she doesn’t have in real life - a family, a protective father, a real home, roots, - and most significantly, a brother, Thorkhill, whom she adores. She realizes that this is the replacement for the brother she loved and lost when her mom died in childbirth. At some point in time she finds (and eventually loses) a piece of wood from the Viking world which she was able to bring into the “real” world - this is her proof that the dream world is also real.
However, her life in the real world starts to get better. She and Orlando become closer, she’s doing better in school, she befriends a new kid at the orphanage and she has replacement grandparents in Yetty and her husband.
Then it all goes to pot. Her friend at the orphanage grows deathly ill and is moved to a hospital (once again, she loses a brother), and Yetty’s house burns down one night mysteriously. It turns out Orlando and his friends may have accidentally left a beach fire going one night, and the embers set the house ablaze. Also, Yetty’s husband dies from pnuemonia shortly afterwards. The dream world’s looking better and better.
In the real world, Orlando gets Bettony a part-time job working for a nearby family, and it turns out the Pool is on their property. The family has a son, Lionel, about her age who has a crush on her. He knows about the area’s Viking history, and thinks he too may have seen the magic boat.
In the dream world, she learns that her brother (and soon, herself) are engaged to royal members of a foreign household, and are destined to be separated forever. Not bearing to lose another brother, she follows his boat in despair.
Suddenly Bettony wakes up in the real world, wet and panting in Orlando’s arms (settle down perverts) - he saved her from drowning after she had thrown herself into the Pool in a trance. This is a wakeup call to her that she doesn’t want to die, and that perhaps the real world isn’t so bad after all.
She tells Lionel everything - she hadn’t told a soul about her dream world before, but she feels like she can trust him implicitly. He believes her, and says that he can organize an archealogical dig through his school to see if they turn up any evidence of Viking artifacts at the Pool.
Lionel and his classmates don’t find anything, but Bettony’s ok with that. She knows the magic is real, and knows that if she ever needs them again, her Viking family will be there. She has a new family though (Yetty, Orlando, Lionel), and that’s all she was ever looking for.
It’s certainly a delightful read, but the Viking bits were less prominent than I recalled: it really was more about her straddling the boundaries between childhood and adolescence (she turns 13 over the course of the book, and struggles with burgeoning romantic feelings). I think it also confirms some of the things you remember, like living with a dad she disliked and an old woman she befriended.
I see that you asked for a photo of the page where she almost drowns, but cameras are frowned upon here and my cell phone is crap. Anywhoo, there is definitely an illustration of Orlando pulling an unconcious Bettony out of the water during that scene, taking up approximately half a page. He’s kind of dragging her from under her underarms and out of the Pool. She’s white, with a pixie-ish blond/brown bob, and he’s black with short hair and a greysish hoodie. The illustration is in black and white, and sort of pencil-y.
Wow, I was beaten to the punch. But, I am going to pick the book up this afternoon and I can check it out, so gurujulp if you need anything looked up, just ask.
Thanks for that review, and wow, that old lady in the boat, and her being called gypsy, the swimming after the boat and nearly drowning, yes!
That is definitely it!
dangermom- I should have it next week, so likely I am covered, but thanks! I hope you like it as much as I did the first time- let me know what you think!
For some reason I always get very invested in these what-was-that-story quests, probably because I know how frustrating it is not to be able to recall a long-lost book, and it’s always great to see them end happily.
(And gurujulp, don’t you dare come back here and say “Yeah, that was the book I was thinking of, but you know, it’s basically crap and I can’t imagine why I’ve wasted ten years trying to remember it.” Happy reading!)
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Happy reading!)