Book description
Josephine Mildred Curl Penny grew up in Labrador during the 1940s and
1950s. Like many Ms, she and her family lived a semi-nomadic
lifestyle, moving inside to the primitive settlement of
Roaches Brook each fall to hunt and trap, andoutside to
Spotted Islands in the spring to harvest the rich fishing grounds.
Sent away to hospital at age four, to boarding school when she was
seven, and forced out to work at age eleven, Josie lost the family
bond so important to a young child. She recounts the years spent at
Lockwood Boarding School where she suffered atrocious punishments,
merciless teasing, and the humiliation of two rapes. The
depersonalization and constant punishment eventually took their toll,
and her once free-spirited nature was broken. Reading became her only escape.
Set against the beauty and ruggedness of the Labrador coast, So
Few on Earth is a story of perseverance in a harsh environment
and the possibility of life starting anew from shattered beginnings.
Josie Penny was born in Roaches Brook, Labrador, to Métis parents,
in 1943. While attending writing courses at McMaster University in
Hamilton, she was encouraged to seek out a publisher for her memoir.
Josie pushed ahead with the idea, enrolling in computer courses,
participating in several writing seminars, and earning a certificate
from the Long Ridge Writers Group in Connecticut. She lives in
Dunnville, Ontario.
