Dodger Boy

Written by Sarah Ellis

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-072-9

176 pp.

Ages 10-14

September 2018

Most people would not think of the 1970s as the setting for historical fiction but, at 40 plus years ago, it definitely qualifies, and it was a time rampant with fodder for fiction writers. From Apollo 13 to the attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, the pioneering of in vitro fertilization and, of course, Watergate, the 1970s rolled through on a plethora of highs and lows. But for many it will be the decade during which the Vietnam War finally ended. Before that end, however, lives were being shaped by either going to war, protesting it or dodging the call to military service, and those who met those individuals were likewise forever changed. Such are the circumstances of Sarah Ellis's newest middle grade novel, Dodger Boy.

Vancouverites Charlotte Quinlan and her best friend Dawn Novak, both 13, attend a hippie event called an Easter Human Be-In. There, amidst the music and dance and fun, they meet Tom Ed, a draft dodger from Texas, who is invited to stay with Charlotte's Quaker family while he tries sort out his plans. When Tom Ed gets a job as a car jockey and has to drive a car up to 100 Mile House, Charlotte and Dawn accompany him. But while, Charlotte appreciates how Tom Ed talks to her like an adult, Dawn sees the trip as something else.

Meanwhile there is a war against the girls' teacher, who is affectionately known as O.O., from a parent seeking her firing for including the book The Catcher in the Rye in her classroom library.  Even within the context of a greater conflict, Charlotte is compelled to protest the censorship and the attack on her teacher, learning about civil disobedience and taking herself out from Dawn's shadow to find her own voice.

Dodger Boy piggybacks on an era of free love and peace but is embedded in a time of conflict. Sarah Ellis may use the Vietnam War as the big conflict, one between nations, but by including those involved with censorship  and between friends, she makes it personal. There may be discussions about pacifism and Nixon and the war but there is also much learning about differences and similarities between Americans and Canadians, about growing up and being an Unteen or a teenager, and about having a friend and being one.  It's a comprehensive look at the 1970s while still being selective about where Charlotte's focus is. Sarah Ellis, in her crafty subtlety, takes a massive picture of life in the 1970s and angles it at the individual, acknowledging what is important to Charlotte: her family, her friends, her school and the freedom to be her best human "be-in."

Sabotage

by Karen Autio
Sono Nis Press
978-1-55039-208-1
293 pp.
Ages 10+
2013

In 1915 Port Arthur Ontario, Saara Mäki and her younger brother John, from Karen Autio's Second Watch (Sono Nis Press, 2005) and Saara's Passage (Sono Nis Press, 2009), may seem to be typical Finnish children in their community but, with the Great War on in Europe, nothing is typical anymore. John's Ukrainian friend Fred has had his father herded away to an internment camp. Then a man at the grocery store calls the Mäki family "enemy aliens". Even Saara has worries that she may not progress from Junior Fourth to Senior Fourth because she's been away for months helping her aunt who has TB. And the news is rife with the case of Carl Schmidt, a German who participated in dynamiting an armory, a plant and the Nipigon River railway bridge, almost. Suspicions abound.

Alternating chapters in the voices of Saara and John, Sabotage begins at the onset of summer holidays. While Saara, now 14, must work away at delivering her mother’s sewing work and completing assignments that would allow her to pass into the next form, John (9) delivers newspapers with Fred, and keeps his ears open to all the gossip and any news the reporters might share. Though Saara is pestered by John’s pranks and outrageous ideas, she is forced to watch him and even work with him whenever directed by their mother. When a new boy, Peter Schmidt, joins them in playing war, Saara meets his sister, Birgitta, and they become fast friends.

While John’s suspicious but observant nature helps him to find evidence of sabotage and get him rewarded with the moniker of “Scoop”, he and many others see sabotage and saboteurs everywhere, whether it be a fire in a grain elevator (a fairly common occurrence) or a person speaking German. But when their own actions are misinterpreted as suspicious, and their father is accused of attempting to blow up the grain elevator, John and Saara must work together and ask for help of those who disapprove of them if they are to help their father and prove that all landed immigrants are not dangerous enemy aliens.

Although the premise behind Sabotage is, well, sabotage, Karen Autio paints a picture of a Canadian community on the edge: men away at war, never coming back; women need to find work to help support their families and help with household duties previously shared with their spouses; families of internees are left without support, financial and emotional; flagrant prejudice is leveled against those who speak other languages regardless of their loyalties, community connections, and valuable contributions; censorship of letters shows up between children; attempts to unionize workers and institute labour reforms are seen as suspicious; and paranoia about everyone and everything abounds. The little pleasures of an ice cream with a beau are few and far between (though sweet), as is play for children. Youth like Saara and John, as well as Fred, Birgitta, Peter and others are slammed hard with the realization that the world and the adults running it are not always hospitable and generous, or even rational. It was a hard lesson to learn, I’m sure. Credit to those adults who could demonstrate sound judgement during a time of war, and impressed that model upon children, because in a world where there really were saboteurs aiming to do harm, there was enough to worry about.

Freedom to Read Week

February 26 to March 3, 2012

"Freedom to read can never be taken for granted. Even in Canada, a free country by world standards, books and magazines are banned at the border. Schools and libraries are regularly asked to remove books and magazines from their shelves. Free expression on the Internet is under attack. Few of these stories make headlines, but they affect the right of Canadians to decide for themselves what they choose to read."

From Censorship in Canada at 
http://freedomtoread.ca/censorship_in_canada/index.asp 

Freedom to Read Week is an annual event organized by the Freedom of Expression Committee of the Book and Periodical Council to raise awareness of issues involving intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

From Vernon, B.C. to Coaldale, Alberta, and Regina, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg, to Innisfil, Toronto, Ottawa and Peterborough, all the way to Cornerbrook, Newfoundland Labrador, libraries and other organizations are organizing events to celebrate our freedom to read.   A wide variety of contests, displays, films, readings, concerts, workshops, read-a-thons, and benefits are planned throughout Canada.  Check the Freedom to Read Week 2012  web site for a full listing of events.

A personal note:
Many readers are able to choose their reading unhampered by the will of others.  When the readers are young, it's not unusual for parents to help direct their children's choices of reading materials.  Similarly, teacher-librarians (if you're fortunate enough to have one in the school) or public librarians are experienced in offering readers' advisory and can offer assistance.  But just as there is a wide range of readers, both in interest, capabilities and experiences, the richness of literature available to children and young adults is far-reaching (contrary to the "there's nothing to read" refrain).  What a child chooses to read or a parent of a child allows to be read is personal, as is their reaction to any text.  We all choose what we want to read, are willing to read, or refuse to read.  That's freedom to read.  But, censorship is the expectation that we have the right to choose what others may read.

As reviewers, we must be diligent to avoid focusing on those attributes which may be deemed objectionable by some and to instead focus on the literary quality of the book: the plot, the characters, the writer's craft, vocabulary richness, themes.  To overwhelm a review with red flags of inappropriateness is both arrogant and unprofessional.  Of course, I pick and choose what I review, based on what books are available, on my reading preferences and on my personal reactions to the theme or the author's writing or whatever.  After all, I can't review every book so I choose those I look forward to reading.

But, anyone who decides that a particular book should not be included in a school or public library, or used by a teacher for a novel study, or honoured with a nomination on a selection list (such as for the Forest of Reading) is practising censorship.  And don't for a second believe that they are protecting anyone with their book challenges.

Decide for yourself what you will read.  Don't decide for all readers.  Not your job.  Nor mine.