FernFolio » Social Justice

Benny and Omar by Eoin Colfer

fernfolio — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:38:15 +0000

Benny ought to be having the time of his life; he has led his team to victory in the Primary Schools County Hurling Final, and Wexford has finally made it to the All-Ireland Hurling Final, but his father has been transferred to Tunisia with his company, EuroGas. So, instead of playing pickup games with his friends, and angling for tickets to the All-Ireland game, he’s had to pack up his hurling stick and accompany his family to Sfax.
Within days of his arrival in Marhaba village, the gated and guarded enclave built for EuroGas, Benny has hurt the feelings of his younger, artsy brother, George, antagonised his parents, annoyed the guards, frustrated his hippy teachers, Harmony and Bob, and alienated his classmates. Though on some levels he likes the ragtag bunch of foreigners in his class, Benny can’t stop himself from rebuffing their overtures of friendship with his smart-alecky comments and his heavy sarcasm. His years at St. Jerome’s have taught him that “you had to sort out, or be sorted,” and no amount of encouragement or group talks works against this bone-deep training.
Warned off the expensive new soccer field by Mr. Gama, the head of security for Marhaba village, Benny finds himself a spot to practice his hurling shots in an abandoned area littered with construction debris, next to the wall that encircles the compound. A skinny little Tunisian boy shows up on top of the wall and watches him shoot his tennis ball against the wall. When, after a couple of traded insults, the kid flicks his cigarette butt at his head, Benny responds by blasting the tennis ball at him, only to find that the kid has snatched the ball out of the air, and disappeared over the other side of the wall.
Annoyed over the loss of his only ball, Benny bides his time, and keeps his eye out for the kid. He realises that the Tunisian boy must live in the lean-to shack built against the outside of the compound wall. Armed with his hurling stick, he climbs over the wall and sneaks into the shack, where he finds and retrieves his tennis ball. Only he is caught by the Tunisian kid, who roars up on a battered old moped. Benny makes a break for the wall, only to be chased by the kid on the moped, and, in his bid to escape, inadvertently whacks the kid across the forehead with his hurley. Furious, the kid grabs the stick from Benny’s hands, slams it against the wall, and breaks it.
With no prospect of any hurling, either on the field or on TV, Benny’s morale takes a further dip, aided by his accidental spilling of food and drink all down the dress Grace, the only classmate to continue to try to befriend him. Then he finds his hurley, carefully repaired, propped up against the front door of his family’s house, and realises the Tunisian kid has fixed it for him. Driven to pay a return visit to the home of the little Tunisian, he introduces himself to and becomes friends with Omar, an orphan who lives by his wits on the streets of Sfax.
The two boys become fast friends, sharing a certain recklessness and spirit of adventure. Though they don’t speak the same language, Omar, a huge fan of TV, does speak a weird form of television English, and Benny rapidly learns some rudimentary Arabic. Together, the boys play soccer with Omar’s friends, practice hurling, and go for wild spins on Omar’s moped. A timely lie to Benny’s parents has them convinced that Omar is the son of one of the guards, and the boys are soon “Bee Gees,” brothers.
Then one evening an unusually sombre Omar invites Benny to his shack for dinner, and Benny accepts, though he’s supposed to be minding his younger brother, George, while their parents go out with friends. That night, Benny learns Omar’s painful secret, and is caught speeding through Sfax on a moped while his brother is at home alone. Benny is grounded for months, and required to follow a strict schedule of schoolwork and chores. Angry and disappointed, his parents refuse to hear a word about Omar, whom Mr. Gama, the head of security, has labelled a thief and a menace, and order Benny to have nothing further to do with the boy.
But, when Mr. Gama and his men become threats to Omar’s safety, Benny discovers that their friendship is more important than getting allowance or an end to being grounded. He takes off with Omar on a wild and desperate ride to protect the only thing that matters to the Tunisian.
Written by Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series, Benny and Omar is a story about friendship and brotherhood, and the bonds that can unite despite differences in culture, religion, language or finances. Written in the words of a kid from County Wexford, it is at times hilariously funny, yet its examination of the struggles of two boys trying to find their way in the world is both loving and lovely. This book is not to be missed.
FernFolio Editor

One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference by Katie Smith Milway and Eugenie Fernandes

fernfolio — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:07:12 +0000

Young Kojo, who lives in a small village in Ghana, has had to quit school to help his widowed mother collect firewood to sell at the local market. The twenty families of Kojo’s village have agreed to save money so that each family in turn can borrow all of the savings to buy something important. When it is finally Kojo’s mother’s turn, she buys a cart to carry firewood to market and loans her son enough to buy a hen.
In its first week, that one brown hen lays five eggs, one each for Kojo and his mother, and three which he sells in the market. It takes him two months, but the young boy eventually repays his mother for the loan, and then starts to save money to buy more hens. In six months, he has three hens, and in a year, he has a flock of twenty-five hens. With the income from the eggs, Kojo is able to pay the fees so that he can return to school.
At school, Kojo works hard to catch up with his classmates and learn about farming techniques. He wins a scholarship to an agricultural college, and starts to dream of owning a poultry farm, one that will provide good jobs for all of the people of his village.
Charmingly told by Katie Smith Milway and beautifully illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes, One Hen tells the story of how one small loan changed the lives of a young boy and his mother, and, eventually, those of entire community for the better, and celebrates the microcredit lending program. A wonderful addition to the literature of social justice!
FernFolio Editor

The Moon Children by Beverley Brenna

fernfolio — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:09:27 +0000

Conditioned by his experiences, both at school and at home, eleven-year old Billy Ray has learned not to expect much from life. His inability to read more than a handful of simple words or to recall numbers, and his hyperactivity in class have made him the butt of his classmates’ taunts and putdowns. At home, his parents’ hard drinking has caused a roller coaster of good moments and bad.
When his mother’s pregnancy results in her seeking help for her alcoholism and then issuing an ultimatum to Billy’s father to either stop drinking or move out, Billy watches as his dad packs up his things and goes. His assurances to Billy that he’ll be in touch are empty promises. So, with his mother off working long days cleaning rooms at a local motel, Billy finds himself practising tricks with his yo-yo, the birthday present he received when he wanted a water pistol and a skateboard. When he learns that a nearby public park is going to hold a talent contest, to raise money for a local kids’ charity, and that the prize will be twenty-five dollars, Billy decides to enter. Mastering the twenty-one tricks shown in the book he got with the yo-yo prove easy for Billy, but finding someone to sponsor him by donating money to the children’s charity proves more difficult.
Across the street from Billy’s rundown apartment stands a big, well-kept house, and often, in those hot July days leading up to the talent contests, a girl sits on the front steps of that house drawing and writing in a yellow notebook she has on her lap. Curious about the girl and what she is doing, Billy approaches her and discovers that, though Natasha Arnold is friendly and welcoming to him, she does not speak. Through her drawings and gestures, as well as what he overhears from neighbours, Billy learns that Natasha has been adopted from a Romanian orphanage by Mr. and Mrs. Arnold, a wealthy couple who want desperately to help Natasha to overcome the traumas of her early childhood. But she has a secret that is weighing her down, one that she is going to need Billy’s help to confront. In reaching out to support Natasha, Billy will also find the courage to face his own sense of helplessness and inadequacy.
The Moon Children is a story about a young boy’s struggle to live with dignity while coping with the lifelong effects of foetal alcohol syndrome, about a young girl’s attempts to reconcile her past with her present and future, and about how, together, they are able to see and understand what is truly important. Well worth a read!
FernFolio Editor

Arctic Stories by Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak

fernfolio — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:36:24 +0000

Set in the late 1950s in the community of Repulse Bay, Arctic Stories recounts three tales about Agatha, a young Inuit girl who lives on the cusp of change in the North. While her parents have lived a largely traditional Inuit lifestyle, Agatha experiences the changes that creeping governmental oversight bring.
In Agatha and the Ugly Black Thing, a large black blimp comes to Repulse Bay in the summer of 1958, terrifying the local residents who have no idea what it is. They are afraid, and made more so by an old man who says he has heard of black flying things that drop exploding things. The residents run away, trying to escape it, but Agatha, finally tired of running, turns around and yells at the thing to go away. When it does just that, the residents cheer.
In the last story, Agatha Goes to School, Agatha and two boys from Repulse Bay go by plane to Chesterfield Inlet to attend residential school. In Chesterfield Inlet, they find a community far bigger than their own, with an RCMP detachment, a hospital, a school and a Catholic mission. The children are not well treated by the nuns and priests, and cry for their parents, but find some pleasure in skiing, sledding and skating. When one of the priest falls through the ice, Agatha and her friends must use what they have to hand to rescue him.
Michael Kusugak’s Arctic Stories celebrates the beauty of the Arctic and the steadfast spirit of the Inuit in the midst of the profound changes brought about by increasing contact with the south.
To hear Michael Kusugak talk about storytelling, Inuit heroes, the Inuit language, Inuit elders and reviving stories, go to Canada’s Digital Collections.
FernFolio Editor

Secrets in the Fire by Henning Mankell

fernfolio — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:12:48 +0000

When her small village in Mozambique is attacked by bandits and her father is killed, Sofia Alface, her sister, Maria, brother, Alfredo, and mother, Lydia, flee, walking for days in search of somewhere safe. They finally find and are welcomed into a second village, where Mother Lydia builds a hut and joins the village women in the fields, aided by Maria and Sofia. Though still grief-stricken following the death of her father and the destruction of their village, Sofia and her family begin to make a new home among their new neighbours.
Encouraged to attend the school offered free of charge by a local Catholic mission, Sofia and Maria begin to spend a few hours each afternoon in the primary class where, surrounded by over ninety children, most of whom are far younger than they are, the girls learn to read and do sums. Sofia makes friends with the local tailor, an elderly man named Totio, who agrees to help her make a dress for her sister just as soon as she can find appropriate fabric. Knowing she will never be able to afford to purchase material, Sofia succumbs to temptation and steals one white sheet from the clothesline of Father José-Maria, the mission priest. Under Totio’s careful instruction, Sofia learns to sew and makes a beautiful dress for Maria, one that delights her sister, but Sofia is consumed by guilt at the thought of her theft.
Father José-Maria, a Brazilian who has come to Mozambique to do God’s work, never notices the missing sheet. He is, instead, preoccupied by the hidden and deadly danger that faces the villagers, and particularly their children, each time they step from their huts. Land mines lie buried just below the surface of the ground all around the outskirts of the village, and Father José-Maria is careful to warn each and every villager that they must never step from the paths. Mother Lydia lectures Maria about the danger, and Maria lectures Sofia, who, in turn, lectures young Alfredo, but children are children, and one day, as they return from the fields, Sofia decides to run. Since it is the rainy season, and the ground is wet, Sofia slips off the path and slides into the underbrush.
The explosion gravely injures both young girls. Maria, dies while Sofia holds her hand, and Sofia is left behind to cope with her sister’s absence and to endure the terrible and lasting effects of her injuries. Unable to safe her legs, the hospital staff amputates first the right leg and, four days later, the left leg. What follows are months of theory, as Sofia lives, initially, at the hospital and later, at a home for elderly people, while she is measured for prostheses.
and is taught to walk again. Though very lonely because Mother Lydia cannot afford to visit often, the young girl makes friends among the women who sell food and goods on the street outside the hospital, and with the doctor in charge of her care. The kind-hearted Dr. Raul buys Sofia oranges, and visits and encourages her whenever his schedule permits. It is Dr. Raul who offers to drive her home to her village when she is finally well enough to go.
Home again after several months, Sofia discovers that much has changed and realizes she cannot remain in her mother’s hut. Crippled by her injuries, she has become a liability to her family, and must find the means to make her own way in the world. Rescued by Dr. Raul, Sofia learns that, despite her disabilities, she possesses a strength of character that will help her overcome every obstacle.
Secrets in the Fire is the story of a young girl’s courage and indomitable spirit. It also tells a tale about the destructive power of land mines. Winner of the 2002 International Kankei Children’s Publishing Culture Award, Henning Mankell’s book is a worthy addition to a growing library of titles about the effects of war upon children.
FernFolio Editor

Chanda’s Wars by Allan Stratton

fernfolio — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:55:38 +0000

After her mother’s death from AIDS, sixteen year-old Chanda Kabelo struggles to bring up her six year-old sister, Iris, and her five year-old brother, Solly. Though her former high school teacher, Mr. Selalame, has helped her get a supply teaching job at the local elementary school, her neighbours, the gossipy and overly intrusive yet well-meaning, Mrs. Tafa, and the kindly Mr. and Mrs. Lesoles, keep a close eye on Chanda and her siblings, and her best friend, Esther, is steadfastly supportive, Chanda is exhausted and overwhelmed by the worry and responsibility of looking after her family.
Her recurring nightmares about her mother, Iris and Solly, Tiro, her mother’s village, and rivers of blood so trouble Chanda, that she talks to Mr. Selalame, Esther and Mrs. Tafa about them. Their reasons differ, but all of her friends tell Chanda that she must travel with her brother and sister to Tiro and mend the family rift that occurred when her mother fled from an arranged marriage to Tuelo Malunga, a man whom she knew was physically abusive, and married their father instead. So Chanda, Iris and Solly make the long bus trip north from their home in Bonang to the village of Tiro where they are warmly welcomed by their grandparents, Auntie Lizbet, and their two uncles and families.
At first, Chanda enjoys her holiday from worry and responsibility, getting to know and like her mother’s family and watching with pleasure as Iris and Solly make friends among the village children and bask in the attention of so many adults. She is intrigued by Nelson, the seventeen year-old son of her grandparents’ neighbours, but worries when she starts to see signs that both his father and older brothers are physically violent toward women and children. When it abruptly becomes clear that her family expects her to marry Nelson, and that he is the son of the man her mother fled from twenty years earlier, Chanda refuses to do as her mother’s family expects, and brings shame on them when she accuses Nelson’s brothers of beating up their wives.
Determined to return to their home in Bonang as soon as possible, Chanda packs up her siblings and heads to the bus station, only to find that the highways have been closed because Mandiki, a rebel leader from Ngala, to the north, has slipped across the border with a small band of men and is striking small posts and villages, stealing food, weapons and drugs, and torturing and killing any who happen to stand in his way. But more frightening still, Mandiki is looking for young children to kidnap and recruit into his rebel army.
When Iris and Solly are stolen by the rebels, along with Pako, Nelson’s little brother, Chanda and Nelson form an uneasy truce and join forces to track the children and their captors north in a desperate bid to free them.
A sequel to Chanda’s Secrets, Chanda’s Wars is a wonderful story about a young African girl’s struggle to care for her young siblings while clinging to her own dream of further education in the midst of the AIDS epidemic and against a backdrop of war and its destructive forces. Allan Stratton’s writing is sure, his deft descriptions and insights into human nature bring Chanda’s Wars leaping off the page and into the hearts of his readers. Not to be missed!
FernFolio Editor

Lily and the Paper Man by Rebecca Upjohn

fernfolio — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:07:09 +0000

Lily likes walking home from school with her mother, waving to Frank, the crossing guard, and visiting Mrs. Chan’s store for milk and the occasional treat. But, when she bumps into a homeless man selling newspapers on her street, Lily is overcome with shyness and fear. The man’s raggedy appearance and wild hair, and his soft, “Dollar for a paper,” have the little girl asking her mother to take the bus home for weeks after their encounter.
When winter comes and the first snow begins to fall, Lily wants to enjoy the fat flakes and asks her mother if they can walk home from school. Once again, they are approached by the paper man who stands shivering in the cold weather. Lily is troubled by the sight of the man’s thin shirt poking through the holes in his coat, his bare feet thrust into broken shoes, and his bare head and hands. Her mother’s response, that they are fortunate to have warm clothes and a warm place to live, starts the little girl to thinking of ways to help the paper man. With her friends Frank, the crossing guard, and Mrs. Chan, as well as her parents, Lily succeeds in making the paper man feel warmer than he has been in a very long time.
Lily and the Paper Man is a lovely story about how individuals, even young children, can make a small difference in the lives of others. Charmingly illustrated by Renne Benoit.
FernFolio Editor

Iqbal by Francesco D’Adamo

fernfolio — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:15:22 +0000

Fatimah is a young carpet weaver who lives and works in a small stone and tin shed behind the courtyard of her master’s big house in Lahore, Pakistan. Bonded to that master after her parents contracted a small debt to a local money lender, she has worked at her loom since she was five or six years old, longing for the day when the chalk marks on the slate above her head have all been erased and she can return home to her family. Fatimah and the dozen or so other young children work from dawn to dusk each day, with an hour’s break at mid day. They eat and sleep by their looms, and those who are slow and clumsy, who complain or argue, or who try to run away are chained to their looms or, far worse, thrown into the Tomb, an empty water cistern buried below ground. Fatimah and her fellow weavers forget the faces of their parents and siblings, and forget the names of their villages. They stop dreaming, stop anticipating a better future, and exist only in the harsh, monotonous present of their young lives.
Iqbal changes everything when he is brought by the master to the carpet factory and chained to the loom next to Fatimah. Unlike the other weavers, Iqbal is not afraid, and cannot be intimidated by the master’s threats. He tells the other children that the debts they are working off for their families will never be repaid; that the marks on the slates are never erased because, while they labour to make beautiful carpets for one rupee a day, their master charges them for room and board. He tells them stories of his family and his village, and, more importantly, of his plans for the future. Though some of the young weavers, rebuff him, afraid of the possibilities his words suggest, Fatimah and Iqbal become fast friends, talking quietly in the night of many things, including how they will go kite flying when they are free.
The visit of important foreign buyers to the carpet factory provokes a shocking act from Iqbal, one that gets him locked in the Tomb in the deadly heat of summer. Fatimah and the other weavers are forced to choose between personal safety and saving the life of their young friend. Their decision unites the children in a common purpose, and helps them to believe that, together, they might have sufficient power to change their lives for the better.
Iqbal is the fictionalized account of the life of Iqbal Masih who, in 1995, came to international attention when he travelled to Europe and the United States to publicize the plight of young carpet weavers working in illegal carpet factories in Pakistan. Beautifully told by Franceso D’Adamo, this story makes real the lives of these children. Appropriate for readers from Grade 5.
FernFolio Editor

Shattered by Eric Walters

fernfolio — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:38:50 +0000

Fifteen year-old Ian needs 40 hours of community service if he wants to pass Grade 10 Civics. Since he’s left it so long, he ends up in one of the most demanding volunteer placements available, serving food to homeless men at The Club, a soup kitchen on the wrong side of town. Though Ian makes it clear to him that he’s only there for the hours, Mac, the tough, straight-talking guy who runs The Club, takes a shine to the teen. Mac, a former alcoholic, knows firsthand how hard life is on the streets, and, by watching how he interacts with The Club’s clients, Ian learns a lot about homelessness and the homeless. For this privileged kid from the suburbs, the grim realities of mental illness and alcoholism, and the dangers and isolation and invisibility of life on the street are both a shock and a revelation.
When Ian is rescued from a violent mugging by Sarge, a former soldier, who is now living with other homeless men in a small camp of tents hidden away in the park, he wonders how a man who is so clearly educated, self-disciplined and rational, could end up on the streets. Assigned by his Civics teacher to interview someone from the Armed Forces, Ian seeks out the former soldier and learns about his twenty-four year career in the military, and the many UN peacekeeping missions in which he participated. But, when Sarge mentions Rwanda and Ian admits to knowing nothing about this place, Sarge clams up, obviously distressed.
So begins Ian’s education about the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which over 800,000 Tutsis were killed while UN Peacekeepers stood by, unable to stop the violence. Over the course of several weeks, Ian speaks to Sarge about the terrible things he observed in Rwanda, the killings and the mutilations, about the UN’s failure to react to Peacekeepers’ warnings of approaching slaughter, of the man’s anguish and rage, and of the nightmares that won’t leave him. The teen learns that people from other parts of the world have also been witness to atrocities, including his own housekeeper, who lives with the memories of Guatemala’s Disappeared.
His experiences, both at The Club and with Sarge, change Ian. He finds himself going to the soup kitchen, long after his 40 hours are done, hooked on the need to help, and, after a lot of soul searching, decides to tackle Sarge about his drinking, and to do everything he can to aid the former soldier in facing his nightmares and finding the courage to live again.
Shattered is a fine story about two very difficult topics, homelessness and the Rwanda genocide. It moved me to tears. Well worth the read!
FernFolio Editor

Life In Small Pieces

fernfolio — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:23:50 +0000

Students in one of our Grade 3 classes recently completed a quilt which they have donated to Design Hope Toronto, who raise money and awareness for local organizations who help Toronto’s homeless. The quilt will be auctioned off at Design Hope Toronto’s Gala on Friday, February 8th at the Modern Weave, 160 King Street East.

The inspiration for making a quilt came from our classroom lessons and research about early settlers of Upper Canada. We discussed the idea that quilts are created through the joining together of community members using scrapes of otherwise useless fabric. We were influenced by several books, Selina and the Bear Paw Quilt, by Barbara Smucker illustrated by Janet Wilson; The Quilt Makers Gift, by Jeff Brumbeau and Gail de Marcken; The Patchwork Path A Quilt Map To Freedom Bettye Stroud, illustrated by Erin Susanne Bennett. These books wrote of the history and symbolism of quilts. We also had help from the school’s art and drama specialist, who helped us solve some of our artistic problems.

Quilts are pieces of homeless fabric coming together through community to create a useful blanket of warmth and memories. The red square in the centre of a quilt has traditionally represented the hearth in a log home. Historically African Americans escaping slavery, used quilt patterns as a secret code to map out the underground railway. Thus the symbol of a quilt became a natural choice for this project as it reflects how our community can join together to help other find purpose and usefulness. Through community we all gain warmth and freedom.

Students worked in six small groups of three or four. Each group chose fabric for a quilt square. Using a template they traced four Bear Paw patterns onto fabric, cut out the fabric and placed it on a quilting square. The six squares where then joined together on a background fabric and framed.