SMALL PRINT
Deirdre Baker on kids' novels from Ann Towell, Karleen Bradford and Jean Little
January 31, 2010
Deirdre Baker
Monday marks the beginning of Black History Month and what have we here ...
Ann Towell's Grease Town (Tundra, 232 pages, $19.99, ages 9 to 12) certainly appears to fit the bill, with its archival photo of a black boy.
In 1862, Titus, a white boy, goes to live with his Uncle Amos, who is labouring in the oil swamps near Sarnia. Once Titus arrives, he finds the ever-present damp and oil both fascinating and daunting. Uncle Amos is kind and Titus finds a way to earn a little money himself, offering tours of the oil fields with his new friend Moses, a "Negro" or "coloured person."
When a couple of racist thugs start inciting the locals to riot against the black workers, Titus is terrified for Moses and his family. Although Uncle Amos shelters Moses' mother and sister, Moses and his father are driven into the snowy woods when the rioters set fire to their house.
Traumatized by the sight of the violence, Titus loses his ability to talk – until the moment he must stand as a witness in court is upon him, and he finally puts off his timidity to speak out for justice.
Towell brings an interesting bit of Ontario history to light. But "black history" this is not, really – even though it features a relevant incident. Moses remains undeveloped as a character, significant largely for his race and little for his qualities as a person. He's the object, not the subject, of the story. Even Titus's friendship with him remains sketchy, a device of the plot.
Titus and the oil swamps are Towell's real focus and in this, she's able to rouse interest. A pity about that cover, though. It's tasteful, but likely to appeal only to the rare child captivated by 19th century photographs.
Black history in another Ontario small town, the author's own Owen Sound, is the focus of Karleen Bradford's A Desperate Road to Freedom: The Underground Railroad Diary of Julia May Jackson, Virginia to Canada West, 1863-1864 (Scholastic, 240 pages, $14.99, ages 10 to 13), a recent volume in the Dear Canada series,
Writing on paper scraps, Julia records her family's flight from slavery until they arrive safely in Toronto, where she finally gets to attend school and no longer needs to keep her literacy secret. But Julia's parents have trouble finding jobs. Her brother leaves to join the Union Army. When the family's former mistress shows up, fear drives them north to Owen Sound.
There Julia makes friends with Amelia, a white girl, but despite Canada's welcome in some respects, she still has to deal with prejudice and measly-mindedness in the townsfolk.
Bradford's model for Amelia is her uncle's mother, who befriended an escaped slave and scandalized some of Owen Sound's white population by entertaining her at home. This personal connection gives Bradford's story a special piquancy – although Julia's turns of phrase tend clumsily toward the modern at times, Bradford makes her a character both likable and engaging.
More recent Canadian history is behind Jean Little's new novel, the latest volume in the Dear Canada series. Exiles from the War: The War Guests Diary of Charlotte Mary Twiss, Guelph Ontario 1940 (Scholastic, 243 pages, $14.99, ages 10 to 13) reads like a counterpart to Kit Pearson's terrific Guests of War trilogy, and a very good counterpart it is.
Charlotte begins her diary on her 12th birthday, the day she learns her family will house some "war guests," the children evacuated from Britain during 1940. Charlotte has moments when it's hard to adjust to having young Jane and her older brother Sam around, but generally, she likes learning the English terms for things and she likes both children.
As the year progresses, the anxiety of hearing the war news, of having an older brother enlist and then go missing, and of worrying about Jane's and Sam's parents during the Blitzkrieg, binds the three children together. Charlotte learns, as her sister told her with the gift of the diary, that "your thirteenth year is when you begin to think for yourself." Little's great gift is her ability to evoke childhood emotions and depict family life with friendly humour and authenticity. Here she's writing about the period of her own childhood – when a child can't believe that air travel will ever become normal, when listening to the radio is a family activity.
The period comes to life under her pen, and so do the characters. "Then I was sensible but timid and now I am senseless and brave," Charlotte says of her own inner growth over the year, showing a marked sense of irony. Even Jane's mix-up over the words to "Jingle Bells" ("bells on cocktails ring") shows Little's unerring ear for the perspective of childhood.
A delightful read in itself, this makes a great pairing with Pearson's trilogy – the same experience from different perspectives.
Author Deirdre Baker teaches children's lit at the U of T. Her Small Print appears every two weeks
Toronto Star