Canadian Crusoes: A Tale of the Rice Lake Plains

'Canadian Crusoes: A Tale of the Rice Lake Plains' is a novel by Catharine Parr Traill. It is considered to be the first Canadian novel for children. The work is set in what is today central southern Ontario, just south of Rice Lake, where three children become lost and must fend for themselves. Drawing from its namesake, Daniel Defoe's novel 'Robinson Crusoe', the novel sets out to show that these children, two English Canadian and one French Canadian, are able to work together to survive in the new world of Canada.