Eric Walters tackles interracial friendships

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/03/2009 (6372 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Eric Walters is an Ontario author who has written over 50 books for young people and won several major book awards. He frequently tackles controversial subjects and his latest novel Black and White (Puffin Canada, 220 p ages, $8, paperback) is no exception.

Thirteen-year-old Thomas is crazy about basketball and when he watches a girls’ game he’s impressed by the skill and grace of Denyse, one of the players. When they go to a movie together he finds they have similar tastes, like sugar on popcorn. But there’s one big difference, Thomas is white and Denyse is black. Both their parents warn them that interracial friendships can face big challenges. Can their friendship survive discrimination from friends and classmates?

Particularly relevant at the present time, this novel is geared at ages 11 to 14.

Meg Rostoff is a British writer who won the Carnegie (Medal for her book Just in Case. Her latest young adult novel, recently released in soft cover, What I Was (Doubleday Canada, 210 pages, $12 paperback) evokes both the loneliness and heartache that can accompany adolescence and also its feeling of unlimited possibilities.

Set in 1962 in a particularly strict boarding school in East Anglia, a 16-year-old boy endures boredom and bullying until be meets Finn, a romantic character living alone on a small island off the coast. Risking expulsion and disgrace, he spends hours in adventures with Finn until a flood and a medical emergency bring things to a shocking and unexpected climax.

Rostoff writes with skill and style, making this book a joy to read. It’s aimed at older teens: 13 and up.

Jessica Scott Kerrin loves to visit garage sales in her hometown of Halifax. Perhaps that is why her eight-year-old hero, Martin, has to endure his mother’s attempts to play a keyboard she’s picked up at a sale in Martin Bridge: Onwards and Upwards! (Kids Can Press, 112 pages, $17, hard cover).

But it is the character of Martin who makes these short chapter books for seven- to10-year-olds so popular. Kerrin knows how eight-year-old boys think, speak and act. In the second story in this book, Rope, the Junior Badgers learn about all things preteen boys love: bugs, snakes, and animal scat. Beginning readers will identify with Martin (or with Laila, who shows the boys how to climb a rope) and chuckle at their adventures.

This one of a series of Martin Bridge books. So far there are eight in all. There are also instructions included on how to make a marshmallow catapult — just in case you are missing one.

Anyone who has ever had a little girl who couldn’t keep still will appreciate Wenda the Wacky Wiggler by B.C. author Christopher Aslan (Benjamin Brown Books, 32 pages, $25, hard cover). Wenda loves to dance and when the townspeople try to shut her down by turning off the music she finds she can dance alone, and get them to join in. With colourful artwork by Emily Mulloch, this picture book has a good message of independence and self-expression for preschoolers.

Helen Norrie is a former teacher/librarian who has taught children’s literature at the University of Manitoba.