The One and Only Question

Written by Norma Charles and Andrea Charles

Illustrated by Ken Daley

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-965-4

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

March 2025 

 

Most children starting at a new school worry a bit, or a lot. They know what they've experienced previously, good or bad, and project in onto the next school, worrying that it could be worse or at least not as good as the last school. The worry and anticipation can be heartbreaking. But if that worry is wrapped up in remembered racism, it can be multiplied and overwhelm, and that first day might be envisioned as the worst day ever. Zeke does just this.

From The One and Only Question, written by Norma Charles and Andrea Charles, illustrated by Ken Daley

For Zeke, his great worry is that he will be called the "N-word" as he'd heard at his old school. And getting ready for that first day seems to herald the worst day possible. He can't wear his favourite shirt. He can't find his hair pick. The cat doesn't want him to leave. And it's raining.

From The One and Only Question, written by Norma Charles and Andrea Charles, illustrated by Ken Daley

When he finally gets on the bus, it's stuffy and smelly. And, although one boy stares at him, no one speaks to Zeke. Once in his class, a hot portable, his teacher demands all the students' attention and has no patience for Zeke's nervousness. Every moment, he anticipates hearing the N-word, "But nothing happens...yet."

From The One and Only Question, written by Norma Charles and Andrea Charles,  illustrated by Ken Daley

After lunch, the kids run around the track. When he's approached by one boy, Zeke waits for that horrific word, even balling up his hands into fists. But Jay only tells Zeke that he's really fast for a nine-year-old. And on the bus ride back, there's a new driver, a man of colour, who greets the boy and asks about his first day, and Zeke gets an invitation from Jay to join him playing basketball. With that, Zeke's outlook flips, hopeful that...

Tomorrow could be even better.

He just knows it.

Stories like this are heartbreaking, knowing that young children of colour hear racial slurs levelled against them at school where they should feel safe. For Zeke to anticipate the worst is more than disappointing. It's tragic. And it's even more so because it's based on the experience of Norma Charles' and Andrea Charles' grandson and son. The text of The One and Only Question conveys with such poignancy Zeke's apprehension for a horrible day, even at a new school where everything should feel fresh. Instead of expecting goodness, new friends, and positive beginnings, his viewpoint and mood are fearful, and cannot help but cloud every interaction he has, from riding the school bus or eating his lunch, to playing outside. He anticipates "the worst day ever" and understandably sees everything through that lens. But Norma Charles and Andrea Charles also give Zeke the opportunity to pull back that fatalism and see a positive interaction when someone reaches out to him and then when others do the same. He's not rooted in the belief that things will only be horrible. He sees around his fears and looks at these interactions from a different perspective and sees what he likes. That's both courageous and strong.

 

I don't know if Ken Daley's African-Caribbean roots helped him connect with the child in Norma Charles's and Andrea Charles's story, but he shows us a boy whose worry is deep and his experiences with racism palpable. Ken Daley, who also illustrated I Am Cherished and Granny's Kitchen, gives us a boy whose body language expresses his anger, his despair, his fear, and finally his relief and even joy. The art keeps the colours around Zeke bright and bold, like the strength that is within the boy, though around him it might be raining or dull or worrisome.

From The One and Only Question, written by Norma Charles and Andrea Charles,  illustrated by Ken Daley

I'm very pleased that no one ever used the N-word in The One and Only Question, though I'm not naive enough to think it's not a common slur heard by Black children and adults. (Norma Charles and Andrea Charles include ideas for students, caregivers, and teachers on how to handle racism and bullying.) But Zeke demonstrates how past trauma with that smear can impact all future dealings. Thankfully some new people in his life demonstrated that he doesn't have to worry about hearing it from them, and he can begin to enjoy the positives that can come from new beginnings.

Last Chance Island

by Norma Charles
Ronsdale Press
978-1-55380-458-1
228 pp.
Ages 10+
March 2016

The cover art of Last Chance Island put me in mind of a maritime story that I was sure took place off the coast of Canada on the Atlantic side.  North Atlantic Ocean, perhaps, or the Celtic Sea, but Canada, definitely not.  Last Chance Island, the island of the title, is the journey’s end of  the two protagonists of Last Chance Island,  the book, which is told in the alternating voices of thirteen-year-old Kalu of Nigeria and fifteen-year-old Canadian Lily Spiekeford a.k.a. Spike.

While Kalu and his young cousin Aisha escape an attack on their African village by rebel soldiers, Spike is being sent home from boarding school upon learning  of her father’s death.  As much as both parties would love to stay put, unforeseen circumstances propel them away from their homes.  Kalu, with only a few pebbles and herbs and his bamboo flute as mementoes of home, takes Aisha to a small seaside village, hopeful of getting work on the boats.  Finding nothing, Kalu makes himself available to a less-than-honest fisherman he calls Mister Elliot, squirrelling Aisha away on board.  Meanwhile, the purple-haired, nose-ringed Spike is being sent away by her father’s live-in girlfriend to stay with Maureen Calhoun, a relative of Spike’s dead mother, who is a lighthouse keeper on Last Chance Island off the coast of Ireland, hopeful the girl will find a place “where you’ll belong.” (pg. 17)

Upon learning that the Irish coast guard is checking for illegal migrants and apprehensive about being caught with more than just his smuggled contraband, Mister Elliot drops the kids off at the island, promising to return when it’s safe.  On the other side of the small island, Spike is being delivered by the water taxi of old Seamus who recognizes her as Lela’s daughter and tells her of Lela’s family living on the island, which he calls the “Beginning Place.” (pg. 55)

You know that the two sides are going to meet and it is fortunate for them to do so, even though Kalu is desperate to survive while waiting for Mister Elliot’s return, and Spike is bidding her time until she can escape the island and return to Dublin to join a group of street musicians she’s met.  It’s the meeting of Spike with Kalu and Aisha that brings them all to realize that Last Chance Island has become their new home.

Norma Charles, whose book Run, Marco, Run (Ronsdale Press, 2011) also focuses on a young person escaping to a new home, contrasts the very different lives of Kalu and Spike as beginning places but demonstrates that circumstances can bring unlikely allies together in purpose and acceptance.  The stories of Spike and Kalu may be on different trajectories but these paths are destined to collide at Last Chance Island, which thankfully is more opportunity than just destination terra firma. Norma Charles ensures that Last Chance Island becomes more than just a beacon for marine travellers; it is safe haven for a few lost souls too.

Run Marco Run

by Norma Charles

Ronsdale Press

978-1-55380-131-3

183 pp.

Ages12-17

2011

Marco has not done anything wrong, if you're thinking that's why he's running.  He's running because his father, James Graham, a journalist in Colombia, tells him to run while himself being kidnapped from a marketplace in Buenaventura.  Even though only thirteen, Marco knows the ins and outs of Buenaventura's criminal elements: its kidnappings of foreigners and journalists and their families, and corrupt police, drug cartels, and rebel groups.  His father, whose light skin distinguishes him as a gringo, is not silent about illegal or corrupt practices, making him an easy target.  Although Marco is Colombian-born and speaks Spanish more easily than English, he is vulnerable, without a mother now and the only child of a target.  So when his father cries out, "Run, Marco, run," he does just that.

Run Marco Run follows Marco in his quest first for safety and then for help in saving his father from potential death.  Although his mother's cousin, Aunt Rosa, and her children, Juan and Rosita, are family living in Buenaventura, asking for their help will only put them in danger.  So, when he finds refuge under a lifeboat on a ship heading for Vancouver, his father's former home, Marco latches onto the idea of getting help there, specifically from an influential international lawyer, Rolando Mendoza, who Marco's father had helped immigrate to Canada.

While Marco's decision to travel to Vancouver as a stowaway and the ensuing journey seem too implausible, Marco's introduction to Canada reads as legitimate as he suffers physical trauma, hunger and thirst, meets Canadians both helpful and scary, and experiences obstacles to his goal of finding Mr. Mendoza.  His suspicions of almost everything new (people, food, water) are clearly evident, though he acknowledges to himself his need to accept risks in order to have any hope of achieving his goal.

The legitimacy of Marco's need to help is father takes him on a very purposeful adventure, which middle grade readers will appreciate.  There are no awkward jumps from past to present and back again to confuse younger readers, or subplots that stray from Marco's desire to reunite with his father.  While Marco's voice may come across as awkward sometimes (for example, I don't know anyone who uses the word "hurray" anymore), and this may just be a reflection of his less-comfortable use of English, his need to find Mr. Mendoza as his father's only hope is convincing.

Norma Charles, author of The Girl in the Back Seat (Ronsdale Press, 2008) and Bank Job (Orca, 2009) with James Heneghan, has tackled some tough issues in her books: polygamy, peer pressure, foster children.  In addressing the vulnerability of foreigners and journalists, as well as the Buenaventura's criminal notoriety (Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada advises against all travel to the city of Buenaventura due to the "presence of illegal armed groups." Colombia Travel Report, Still Valid April 27, 2012), Run Marco Run provides young readers with a bona fide action-adventure while seeing their own country from another young person's perspective.