(2) YA Waiting for her soldier brother to return from WWII, almost-fourteen-year-old Rachel asserts that she's conquered childhood. That's just the first of many levels of lies, concealed truths, and pretense explored in this engrossing, finely wrought novel set in a small Ontario town. Rachel is a sympathetic, naive narrator, and Johnston plays out her rich themes thoroughly yet with great subtlety.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2013

(3) 4-6 Rosalind, youngest of the spirited and intelligent Kemp girls, discovers that she can see into the future. She tries to reject her position as seventh daughter of a seventh daughter by dressing and acting like a boy--with results both comic and poignant. Time (eve of World War II) and place (small-town Ontario) are vividly evoked, and Ros is a highly sympathetic character.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano

(3) YA Richly detailed, this historical novel tells of pioneer and author Susanna Moodie's youth in England and her immigration to the backwoods of Canada, where, with her husband, she homesteaded, raised nine children, and still achieved her dream of becoming a published writer. Memorable characters and a well-paced narrative mark Johnston's foray into historical fiction.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(2) YA Fourteen-year-old Aggie and her two older sisters make up a precarious family: their father, a convicted thief, has died; their mother ran off long ago; and the sisters lead separate lives. When they are told that they are the heirs to their deceased grandfather's estate, they leap at the lifeline. The narrative, immediate and personal, keeps the reader firmly inside Aggie's head; the voice is as unconventional, heartfelt, and ultimately as likable as Aggie herself.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2002

(1) YA Each chapter is introduced with the actual diary entries of a sixteen-year-old boy who spent the summer at his relatives' Canadian lakeside cottage in 1904. Johnston's chapters flesh out his bare-bones entries to create an endearing and enduring fictional character, who grows from liking himself not at all to a quiet self-confidence and assertiveness. A technically impressive and, more importantly, affecting novel.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 1999