DCB
978-1-770867949
228 pp.
Ages 9-14
May 2025
She was strong. She didn't give up. She didn't take crap from anybody. I liked that. And all she really wanted was a place to call home. I understood that better than I even would have wanted. (p. 133)
The "she" of whom fourteen-year-old Sam Reid speaks is Anne of Green Gables, and, along with support from a select group of new acquaintances, the boy with red hair and a matching temper has a lot to learn and especially from L. M. Montgomery's 1908 fictional character.
Sam may be a smart kid, but it doesn't stop him from letting his temper get the better of him. When confronted with a shopkeeper trying to rip $10 off of him and having to stand up against the high school's quarterback, who ends up with a broken nose, Sam knows he should have kept his cool. But things get worse when Sam is accosted in a school bathroom and fights back, leaving Cody, the quarterback, with a concussion.
...there's no question that I have a temper, but that's only because people are always doing things to provoke me. (p. 9)
With no family–his parents were killed in a car crash by a drunk driver four years earlier–and foster parents who don't want him back, he is sent to the Johnson Juvenile Center, a detention facility for those younger than 18 who were awaiting trial or those already convicted and serving sentences less than 18 months. Sam would be at the Johnson Juvenile Center, a.k.a. the Gables, for at least 5 weeks while he is assessed before heading to court. While his social worker Jenna Williams is keen to help, his court-appointed lawyer Mr. Turner is challenged, especially when additional charges of fraud and theft are brought by the shopkeeper, and everyone seems disappointed that the local football hero would be out of commission.
At the Gables, Sam must deal with a nasty guard Mr. Roberts who insists on calling Sam "Red" and is just waiting for the chance to write him up for poor behaviour, bad attitude, and more. There's also a convicted "long-timer" Bruce who seems to have it out for Sam after an innocent mistake of sitting at the wrong dining table ends with Sam shooting off his mouth again.
Why did people keep coming at me and why wasn't I smart enough to shut up and move on when they did? (p. 64)
Thankfully Sam has some good people on his side trying to help him be the best version of himself. There's his roomie Nigel, a smaller guy who is in for throwing a chair at someone; Mrs. Martinez, their English teacher; Kate, a kind-hearted guard; and his psychologist, Dr. McEnny. Now if Sam could only stop seeing everything and everyone as a threat or a challenge and use his smarts–and he is very intelligent–to help himself.
Sometimes smart can't overcome circumstances, situations, and tragedy. (p. 128)
Things start to change for Sam when Mrs. Martinez assigns Nigel and Sam each a book on which they will prepare a report, and Sam gets Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, hoping he'll find some interesting parallels with his own life. If he can just get past his outrage and humiliation, especially when he sees that Anne is a redhead like he is, Sam may be able to use his potential and discover his strength to find hope.
For lovers of L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, the parallels between Anne's life and that of Sam will be evident, even though their differences in time and circumstances are significant. (In fact, an assignment Sam completes for Mrs. Martinez focuses on these very parallels.) Eric Walters is very subtle in his homage to Montgomery and her red-haired character, though his "Author's Note" suggests an extraordinary depth of admiration for the author and her book. This is abundantly evident in his appreciation for her words–quotes from Anne of Green Gables are cited often and always fitting–and the themes of persevering life's challenges and finding hope against tragedy and adversity. Eric Walters makes us believe in Sam. The young teen may not be completely likeable at the beginning of Sam but he's a kid who has had a lot of hard knocks. His temper, which may or may not be as a result of his circumstances, and I don't mean the colour of his hair, is an entity with which he has a relationship, good or bad. It's in his learning about that anger and his recognition that he has been able to keep it in check that almost releases him from it and allows Sam to grow. While he initially thinks Anne is almost delusionally optimistic, he too starts to acknowledge the positives of things that once appeared to only be difficult.
Sam has had a tough life, bouncing from foster homes and receiving homes, never being offered a true home since the death of his parents. But, as horrific as going to a juvenile center must be, the Gables becomes a place of salvation for Sam, as Green Gables was for Anne, helping him acquire a support system as tough as any loving family and teaching him the strength he has always had to overcome that which seems formidable. With kind souls and kindred spirits, Sam's life goes beyond "a perfect graveyard of buried hopes" as Anne declares at the beginning of Anne of Green Gables, to one of possibilities.
