Take the Stairs. Karen Krossing. Toronto, ON: Second Story Press, 2003. 183 pp., pbk., $9.95. ISBN 1-896764-76-2. Subject Headings: Adolescence-Juvenile fiction. Teenagers-Juvenile fiction. Identity (Psychology)-Juvenile fiction. Grades 6-10 / Ages 11-15 Review by Darleen Golke. *** /4

excerpt:

I hated the Building. I was going to get out of it as soon as I could, but I couldn't pretend I didn't live there . . .

"What a place you live in!" Lorne shook his head as he crawled back into his seat."Is everyone this crazy?"

I glanced behind me at the Building. Petra's father was still staring down the street like a rabid pit bull. Crazy Tate bounced around him, but Magda had been smart enough to head inside fast. Then, the sun glinted off a Building window that was covered in tinfoil. The light caught my eye, like a wink, and I got this weird feeling, as if the Building were watching all of us, and listening, too. Like our sounds and smells had seeped into its walls. The good and the bad. The laughs and the sobs. All those scuffmarks and fingerprints, sandwiched between layers of paint. The Building held it all, then let it trickle slowly back to us, like a tribute.

I shook my head to clear it. "Pretty much."

Krossing's previous novel, The Castle Key (2000), was a successful fantasy aimed at young readers. In this second novel, Krossing incorporates a remarkable range of teen issues and organizes the novel by using thirteen first-person contributions from teenagers, seven female and six male, who have developed their own community and share their struggles, their conflicts, their "secret hopes," and their dreams. Their community at The Monteray, 64 Wilnut Street, a shabby, "more gray than white" fifteen-storey brick apartment structure with "grime caked onto the walls under the balconies" is known as The Building, their home. "Balconies are crammed with bikes, empty beer cases, and broken furniture" while behind "the tightly locked apartment doors: the drone of a television, angry voices, and a troubled sigh."

     Each account resonates with the turbulent emotions of young people coping with the gamut of teenage issues. The escape motif recurs throughout the narrative beginning with the anchor story, "Hide and Seek." Petra, faced with an increasingly abusive father no longer satisfied with beating her mother and needing "strength from new sources," decides to heed her "heightened instinct for survival" and escape.

"There is a time to hide and a time to seek. I had mastered hiding. Now I had to learn to seek," she resolves.

     Other young people stay in the Building but reach out for relief. Athletics offers Louis and Tony a means of escaping. Louis ("Tailwind") finds acceptance among his fellow mountain bikers helping him cope with sibling rivalry. The Hunk, Tony ("Take the Stairs"), excels at baseball and joins pickup games with "little rich guys" who accept him for his ability. However, when his new uptown friends drive him to the Building, he diffuses a potentially explosive family confrontation when Petra, after a year's absence, returns to rescue her mother from her abusive father. Tony concludes that "maybe good things can come out of this building, sometimes" and that he can "just leave" someday as well.

     Escape sometimes appears in unexpected and unusual forms. Asim ("Easy Target") fulfills family babysitting responsibilities, faces bigots who label him a terrorist, and unexpectedly, on his way to meet his new friends, gains his own understanding of zakat, the "charity that is required of every Muslim." Flynn ("Opportunity"), who commits a seemingly innocent theft only to find the circumstances spinning out of control, must examine his own integrity. Tanya ("Leg Fungus") rejects the body-image pressure of her peers and faces ridicule only to find unexpected support from her friends. David ("Stinks like Flowers") struggles to accept his dad's fatal, painful battle with AIDS and seeks escape into music and mysticism finally managing to forgive Dad "for leaving" and stop being angry.

     Escape comes from sources outside the Building community for Roger and Allie. Overweight and indolent Roger ("Off the Couch") assumes responsibility for incubating eggs and connects with a petting zoo at Middledale Farms whose owner offers him a job. Allie ("Night Watch"), receiving a Parisian Arts Abroad scholarship, fears leaving her depressed and suicidal mother who controls her "every move, [her] every thought with a package of pills and a few well-delivered tears." Finally the burden overwhelms Allie and she calls for help and ends her night watches.

     Personal relationships form the basis of escape for some of the characters. While Magda ("Grain of Sand") accepts the necessity of terminating her pregnancy, she becomes disappointed and disillusioned with Mark's self-centeredness. "He wouldn't pretend we could keep the baby. He wouldn't feel the pain with me. He wouldn't even admit it had happened." She realizes she has just "been a mirror in which he could admire his reflection." Sidney ("Stern Paddle") sees that Clive runs her life, yet thinks she needs him. A camping/canoeing mishap with her father forces her to battle "the wind, rain, darkness, hunger, and time" to paddle and portage them to safety. Jennifer ("Queen of Spades") is the object of numerous male fantasies, but only feels complete when she comes out with Max(ine). "I'm not misunderstood now," she explains. This is "the real me." Cori ("The Many Faces of Men, Boys, and Pigs"), who accepts her mother's mantra that "all men are pigs and all women [have] to somehow survive them," loses a kind and caring guy who rejects her abuse.

     Each teenager shares the environment of the Building and feels a bond with the others, and yet each finds unique and individual ways of coping and finding meaning and purpose in his/her personal journey. Krossing creates credible characters whose narrative chronicles their lives in well-paced and colourful prose. The plethora of "problem novel" issues crammed into the thirteen accounts may discourage some young readers; however, they will undoubtedly identify with the struggles and challenges of the thirteen denizens of The Building.

Recommended.

Darleen Golke is a librarian (between assignments) living in Abbotsford, BC.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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