ON OUR OWN
Book One of the Twin Oaks Trilogy
By: Elizabeth Haswell

It is the post war period in Ontario, Canada, and Jed and Jessica Oaks, twelve year old twins, are living a completely happy life on a farm with their grandparents. Suddenly everything goes wrong. A terrible automobile crash robs them of the only family they have ever known. Their natural parents have no other choice but to be reunited with children they barely know. With no other option possible, off they all go together to start a new life in Toronto.

Their plan to be a family becomes an impossible goal. Big city life is not for the twins. Their parents, however, cannot tolerate farm life. The result is that through a set of odd circumstances, the twins are left living on their own. To survive and to escape the clutches of the Children’s Services, they must figure out a way to live without attracting attention to themselves. Their greatest fear, because of their young age, is the possibility of being taken up by Children’s Services and placed in separate foster homes. On Our Own tells the story of how these unique children learn not only to survive, but to achieve great success. There are moments of anguish, and of fear, and even of humour and laughter, while they learn to cope with unexpected problems. The lessons they must learn are many: to trust again, to seek and appreciate friendships and to come to know and accept the true meaning of ‘family.’