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CM . . .
. Volume X Number 14 . . . . March 12, 2004
excerpt:
They say that growing up is never easy, and 12-year-old Selina Palmer can vouch for that. Being the only black child in her class is a challenge that she must rise to daily. Then, when she receives a threatening note from a particularly malevolent classmate, Selina wonders if she can muster the courage to face this persecution. Fortunately, she does not wind up having to face it alone for her family and a newfound friend come to her defense and stand by her when times are tough and accusations start to fly. And in spite of her trials at school, Selina recognizes how lucky she is to be surrounded by the warmth and love of her family and her Africville neighbours who are like extended family to her. The close-knit community is a safe haven for Selina, a source of strength and renewal. When she sees how her new friend Rosalind lives, she is all the more grateful for these gifts. Rosalind has expensive clothes and a luxurious home, but her mother is never home and her house seems cold and empty, particularly compared to Selina's. But Selina's worst fears are realized when her friends and neighbours start to move away, one by one, as the government makes plain its goal to relocate all the residents of Africville, destroying the only home that Selina has ever known. Once again, she must look within herself to find the resources she needs to cope with this tragedy and embrace a new future. This is a thoughtful, and important, story for young readers with much for them to reflect upon. They will no doubt sympathize with Selina's feelings of victimization, both when she is confronted with Doreen's malice at the beginning of the story and when she later catches wind of the rumours about the plans for Africville. The author accurately portrays her feelings of fear, dread and helplessness in the face of both of these situations. Because bullying is a sad reality that many young people face, readers will identify with, or at least recognize, the sad situation that Selina finds herself in with Doreen. However, the resolution of this situation may perhaps seem a little too quick and tidy. More often than not, one would expect a bullying situation of that type to build up over time before finally coming to some sort of climax. In this case, Doreen seems to suddenly (almost out of the blue) start harassing Selina, presumably because she is black, and, within a day or two, things come to a head and Doreen's father angrily ends up withdrawing her from the school. There is no real sense of any animosity having been building up to this point. Moreover, the fact that Selina is so readily accepted by all of the other girls as soon as Doreen is out of the picture also stretches credibility somewhat. In addition to clearly depicting the struggles that Selina faced as a minority student, Perkyns also does an admirable job of depicting the range of reactions that people had toward the residents of Africville at that time. Some people (like Doreen and her father, and the clerk at the fabric store), clearly thought of Selina and her people as being inferior - second class citizens from "the slums" - and they seized every opportunity to let their thoughts be known. Meanwhile, there were others who tried to offer kindness and support. And there were still others who recognized the injustice of the racial persecution but who chose to ignore it or not become involved. This was aptly demonstrated when Selina's teacher deliberately ignored Selina's plight when her classmates assaulted her because of the fact that Doreen's father was on the school board and so she couldn't risk getting involved. It was also evident when Selina attended a classmate's party and was clearly uncomfortable by the father's undisguised coldness towards her. The girl's mother was aware both of her husband's behaviour towards Selina and of how Selina felt. Yet she chose to do nothing and was simply relieved when Selina left. In this way, the author helps readers to appreciate that there was a wide range of feelings towards the people of Africville and the difficulties they faced were sometimes very obvious and cruel and sometimes were more subtle but equally hurtful. The story's greatest strength lies surely in its fond portrayal of the community of Africville, the fellowship and camaraderie that bound its residents together like a large family. The description of the special Sunrise Service at Easter and its importance to the members of the community was one of my favourite parts of the book. In creating such a strong spirit of place and capturing the vitality of the community, the book serves as a testament to modern readers of all that was lost with the destruction of Africville. Unfortunately, in this respect also, things seemed to happen just a little too quickly. The full scope of the tragedy, the magnitude of the whole sad situation would perhaps have hit home more fully if the story had developed more gradually and the emotions of the characters had been explored more fully. Instead, it feels as though Selina and her family make this momentous decision to relocate very suddenly, and then Africville, as they knew it, is gone and their new lives have begun. In a very short space of time, Selina learns of the rumours about Africville's fate, her best friend moves as part of the relocation, her grandmother dies, and she and her parents pack up and move as well. Because so much happens so quickly, neither the character nor the reader seem to have the chance to absorb the full impact of any or all of it. Furthermore, the book would have benefitted from an author's note of some kind, giving readers who are not from the area some background details about Africville which would both clarify many things and render it more meaningful. While the book creates a strong sense of Africville as a community, readers may not realize that this small Black community in north end Halifax had existed for many, many years until the mid-1960's when the government decided to "relocate" its residents in the interests of urban renewal, a decision which was made without any consultation with the people of Africville. It would perhaps have been interesting, and enlightening, if the book had contained more explicit information about what exactly happened to Africville, and a list of suggestions for further reading on the topic. Nevertheless, this is an engaging, accessible novel that offers much room for thought anddiscussion. It could open up many interesting avenues of discussion and further study for students in a classroom setting. Recommended. Lisa Doucet is a children's bookseller at Woozles in Halifax, NS.
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