Why Ponds are Important in Crow Lake by Mary LawsonCrow Lake is the debut novel by Canadian author Mary Lawson, narrated by Kate Morrison, the second child of the Morrison family. . A serious car accident left seven-year-old Kate, her one-and-a-half-year-old sister Bo, and her two older brothers, Luke and Matt, orphans. Rather than living separately with loved ones, they chose to live together and grow up. Luke and Matt have made many sacrifices to provide for their family and have also received a lot of help from their community. The story took place in Crow Lake, a small, isolated farming community in northern Ontario. In Kate's childhood, she and Matt often visited the ponds near their home. There are many descriptions of ponds in the novel, which are closely related to the theme of the story. The ponds represent childhood and hometown in Kate's mind, they help her decide on her career, and are vital links between Kate and Matt. First of all, the ponds are full of memories of Kate's childhood and hometown. These are Kate's favorite places before she grew up. In the prologue, Kate mentioned that “there is no image of my childhood that I carry within me more clearly than this” (Lawson, p.4). Kate remembers her first trip to the ponds. “I was so small that he had to carry me on his shoulders – through the woods with their lush poison ivy growth, along the railroad tracks, past the dusty boxcars lined up to receive their loads of sugar beets , on the steep sandy path to the ponds themselves” (Lawson, p.4). From riding on Matt's shoulders to following Matt to the ponds, they spent "hundreds of hours" there (Lawson, p.5). Kate cherishes the vivid and sweet memory of her time spent at the ponds.