Book details
Pamela Porter - Author
This is a bleak but ultimately hopeful family story: the children’s resourcefulness and the quiet help they receive are set against hardship and cruelty in their community.
Book Analysis
Sign in to see how this book fits your child and family preferences.
Sign in for personalised guidanceHow the book presents it: The book presents this favourably.
Talk about: If the children receive help, how does it sit alongside their own efforts?
How the book presents it: The book takes a critical view of this.
Talk about: If community members judge others, how does their behaviour compare with the help some neighbours offer?
The free-verse narration moves among the children, their parents and other witnesses, offering several perspectives on family life and the surrounding town during the Second World War.
The story includes a parent’s death, children left with little food, heat or money, sexual abuse of a minister’s daughter, wartime danger and a storyline involving a doctor’s daughter and polio.
If the story’s different voices make it hard to judge a character, what clues might help you decide whose account you trust?
Consider reading together or checking in after sections that deal with family loss or abuse; the free-verse form and changing narrators also offer natural pauses to discuss perspective.
Theme indicators describe how the book presents a topic; they are not a verdict on the whole book or your family's values. Confidence reflects how much book-specific material was checked. Only part of the book information was available, so some details remain unconfirmed.
Limited information
Checked: 28 September 2026.
Relevant to: Resilience and kindness; Community judgement and adult hypocrisy
I'll Be Watching – House of Anansi Press
Limited information
Checked: 28 September 2026.
Relevant to: Resilience and kindness; Community judgement and adult hypocrisy
CanLit for LittleCanadians: I'll Be Watching
Limited information
Checked: 28 September 2026.
Relevant to: General book context
Benefits, discussion questions and reading approaches are suggestions. Your knowledge of your child remains part of the decision.
Suitabook