A quilt can be a family album, each scrap of material in the patchwork pattern commemorating rites of passage and memorable moments. In Irish Chain, Barbara Haworth-Attard’s latest historical YA novel – as in her previous novel Flying Geese – quilting is the central motif in a coming-of-age story set in the First World War.

Thirteen-year-old Rose Dunlea is an archetypal ugly ducking. Awkward and shy, she is tormented at school because of her dyslexia and feels ashamed. Only at home does she find relief, drawing comfort from the stories her Mam tells about her namesake, her great-grandmother, whose life is embodied in the patchwork Irish Chain quilt she made. Rose’s nascent fighting spirit and courage come to full flower in the aftermath of the tragic collision and explosion of two ships in Halifax harbour in 1917, a disaster that kills many members of her family and destroys the north end of the city.

Rose is a powerfully drawn character, an adolescent cauldron of boiling emotions. However, her first-person narration sometimes seems too flat to fully convey her emotional turbulence. Although her voice is plainspoken and direct, it lacks the spontaneity and colour of distinctive inner speech.

In telling detail, Haworth-Attard captures the daily drama and struggles of Rose and vividly establishes what life was like in the north end’s close-knit Irish community. Her depiction of the devastation following the explosion is unflinching and unsentimental, making Rose’s search of hospitals and morgues for her family all the more heartbreaking. Throughout, Rose finds strength and inspiration in remembering how her great-grandmother overcame her hardships and losses. Readers will be similarly inspired by Rose’s story.