Cold Grab

Cold Grab, a fairly quick read, focuses on Angelo Torres, a teen Filipino boy who has been brought to Toronto, Ontario, by his mother who had left to work in Canada several years before. Angelo faces difficulties in fitting in at school and adjusting to Canadian culture. At school, Angelo falls in with the wrong crowd; this group of boys introduces him to shoplifting, and stealing from individuals with the intent to sell the items for cash. One of the main conflicts in the novel involves Angelo’s stealing a valuable hockey card from one of this mother’s clients (she cleans houses). Much of the second half of the novel deals with Angelo’s deciding what to do with and about this card — hand it over to his ‘friends’ to sell? Sell it on his own? Confess to having taken it? In the end, Angelo learns who his real friends are, he works to right his wrong, and he repairs his strained relationship with his mother.

As evidenced in the excerpt, this novel is not challenging in terms of vocabulary or sentence structure. The novel does offer Tagalog words and phrases throughout, such as in the titles of each chapter, and in some of the Filipino characters’ thoughts and spoken words. Each of the Tagalog words or phrases is clarified in English and appears in italics in the text. For instance:
He overheard Yvonne say to the officer, “Mahirap gisingin ang nagtutulog-tuglan.” He realized they were talking about him. She was saying it was hard to wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep. Yvonne was calling her son lazy. (p. 102)

This short novel does offer areas for research and inquiry. Readers unfamiliar with the Philippines notice details about the Philippines sprinkled throughout the story with Angelo’s remembering his homeland, talking about it with his mother, and comparing it to Toronto. As a classroom activity, readers could take note of these details, then conduct research to determine if the details are accurate. Readers could also conduct research to learn more about the Philippines, or compare the Philippines to another country.

Even though Angelo is from the Philippines, readers hailing from other countries who face similar struggles — adapting to a new country and a new culture, for instance — could relate to Angelo’s emotional upheaval and difficulties in fitting in.

Cold Grab focuses on a teen boy and his peers; the only female characters are Yvonne (Angelo’s mother) and Mrs. Harrington (Yvonne’s employer, nicknamed ‘The Queen’ by Angelo). There is no love-interest storyline or female ‘distraction’ for Angelo; the focus in is on his inner conflict and how he handles the pressures from his male peers.

Overall, Cold Grab presents readers with one boy’s experience in leaving behind a home he loves to join his mother in a new country. Readers journey with him as he struggles to find his place in this new-to-him world, and they can connect with the lessons Angelo learns and reflect upon the application of these lessons in their own lives.