Alone: A Winter in the Woodsrecounts a true Canadian adventure on the frontier. On a deeper level, it is a story about courage, self-reliance, love and community, about accepting responsibility for not only doing things right but doing the right thing, so that the common good is served. Author Felicity Sidnell Reid adroitly weaves these two themes together so that venture and virtue become a unified narrative that both enthralls and elevates.

The adventure plays out in the late 18^thcentury as Upper Canada is being slowly settled by families cutting land-grant farms from virgin forest. United Empire Loyalist Elias Turner accompanied by his 13-year-old son is on his way from the Kingston area of Ontario to the Belleville area in mid-winter by ox-drawn sled to claim his land. After building a tiny cabin, Elias must leave his son with the oxen at the cabin and return to…