There aren't many novels that connect a commercial American style and the special qualities of a Canadian region, but Kevin Major's first book, Hold Fast …, does just that. It brings together the current mode of "young adult" novel as developed in the United States and the longings of Newfoundlanders for their past. In this sense it's a unique product of recent Canadian literature….

Newfoundlanders realize that, spiritually, all that they possess is the tradition their ancestors left them: the tradition of the intimate and isolated fishing villages, the seal hunt, the special language that is so different from the English most of us speak. At the same time, they know that forces they can't control (including forces within themselves) are drawing them away from that tradition, into urbanization and a closer contact with mainland Canada.

This is an odd subject for a juvenile novel, but it is one...