FernFolio » homelessness

Out of the Cold by Norah McClintock

fernfolio — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:22:10 +0000

Worried and hurt when her boyfriend Nick takes off without a word to anyone, Robyn Hunter decides, after some fruitless searching, that she needs to find a new preoccupation in life. Her friend Billy, a dedicated do-gooder, suggests that she volunteer at a local drop-in centre for homeless people and so Robyn finds herself helping out in the kitchen there, baking thirty-six dozen cookies on her first day. At the centre, Robyn meets the director, Mr. Donovan, Betty, the cook, and some of the centre’s clients, including the sweet and shy Andrew and the rather scary Mr. Duffy. She also meets Ben, another volunteer, who takes one look at her new boots and her expensive coat and sneeringly labels her a two-four, a twenty-four hour wonder who turns up once to get in some community service hours or as a sop to their conscience at Christmas.
Goaded by Ben’s attitude and unable to say no to Billy or Mr. Donovan, Robyn finds herself returning to the drop-in centre to help with their Christmas preparations. She wins the cautious approval of Ben, only to lose it again after she is attacked by a client intent upon taking food from the kitchen’s storeroom and reports the assault to the police, which results in the man being barred from the drop-in centre just as the weather turns very cold. Tragedy strikes when the man freezes to death in an empty alley.
Though her friends and parents tell her that it is not her fault, Robyn is convinced that, by speaking to the police, she is responsible for the homeless man’s death. Looking for a concrete way to deal with her guilt and grief, she approaches the contemptuous Ben, who informs her that he wants to hold a memorial service for the dead man, but that no one seems to have known much about him. Assigned the job of learning who this man was, Robyn interviews clients at the drop-in centre, haunts the man’s regular spot outside a downtown office building, and makes the acquaintance of someone who just might hold the clues to his identity. In the process, Robyn discovers far more about both the dead man, the clients and volunteers at the drop-in centre, and the problem of homelessness than she could have ever anticipated.
The fourth in Norah McClintock’s Robyn Hunter mysteries, Out of the Cold is a suspenseful and fast-paced adventure, that will keep the reader engaged to the final, and unexpected, revelation.
Out of the Cold won the 2009 Red Maple Fiction prize.
FernFolio Editor

A Chance to Shine by Steve Seskin and Allen Shamblin

fernfolio — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:24:17 +0000

When his father offers three meals a day to Joe, a homeless man who hangs around in front of the family store, in exchange for sweeping the sidewalk every morning, a young boy wants to know why they are helping the man. His father explains that every one needs to know that they have a contribution to make, that “Every heart needs a chance to shine.” The boy is surprised to find that Joe shows up the following day clean, and smiling, and ready for work. Within a few weeks Joe is working in the family store, and has found himself an apartment.
His father rejoices that great things have come from such a small offer of help, and the boy discovers his attitude towards others has changed. He no longer avoids classmates whom he used to think were strange or different; his eyes have been opened by his father’s act and Joe’s response.
A Chance to Shine celebrates the importance of recognizing and honouring every individual, and reminds the reader that, sometimes, all we need to do in order to effect positive change is to reach out and offer our hand. The book comes with the music and a CD of the song, A Chance to Shine.
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

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

Tom Finder by Martine Leavitt

fernfolio — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 01:23:35 +0000

The first thing Tom remembers is walking, his back and backside screaming in pain. He has forgotten everything that came before, family, friends, school, his last name. In his backpack he finds a notebook with notes about Mozart and a candy heart imprinted with the words You are nice, so he concludes that he is nice, and when he finds a big native man standing at the river’s edge praying and weeping, he asks if he can help. The native man, Samuel Wolflegs, is looking for his son, Daniel, a drug addict, who is living on the streets. Samuel looks at Tom and sees him as the answer to his prayers. Although loser is the first word Tom hears after forgetting, Samuel calls him a finder and asks him to look for his son.
Armed with his notebook, in which he compulsively records what he finds and a mind so empty of memory and preconception that each new experience, large and small, resonates in his heart and soul and intellect, Tom sets out to find Daniel. On his 3-month journey, he finds Jenks, a homeless man who sees ghosts, Jeans, a claustrophobic chicken cooker from Jamaica who longs to get home so he can marry his sweetheart, Gina, and Pam, a beautiful young girl sliding down the slippery slope into prostitution. He also finds that he possesses strengths and abilities; he can spell, he can run fast and swim, he can work out deals for food, a locker, clothing and the occasional shower, and he can make things true by writing about them.
Martine Leavitt’s Tom Finder is a moving story about a young man who looks for another lost youth and finds himself. Written in words that flow like poetry, this book is a must read for students from Grade 7.
Fern Folio Editor

Sketches by Eric Walters

fernfolio — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:00:30 +0000

Fourteen year-old Dana is a runaway, living on the streets of Toronto. Begging for spare change to buy coffee and a doughnut, and protecting her rapidly dwindling possessions from thieves is a far cry from her comfortable life in the suburbs, but she cannot go home.
Fortunately, Dana is adopted into a street family. Sixteen year-old Ashley has been on the streets since she was twelve and, though she puts on a tough act and grumbles about the added pressures of looking out for an underage runaway, proves herself when things get difficult. At seventeen, Brent shows a sometimes alarming tendency toward drug use, and possesses a level of cynicism and pessimism that hints at the struggles he has known, but is steadfast in his care and protection of the two girls. It is Brent who knows all the squats and finds them somewhere safe to sleep each night. It is Brent who figures out each day how they are going to make some money, either by choosing a subway entrance at which to beg for change or by cleaning windshields at stoplights. Both Brent and Ashley are there to calm her down and get her safely away when Dana is propositioned by a man in a business suit who then accuses her of solicitation when Dana starts making a scene.
Dana learns about the realities of life on the street, the constant discomfort of dirty clothes and hair, of hunger and of fatigue. She discovers that street people such as she are invisible, and that most passers-by either become hostile when asked for money or give out of the selfish desire to make the unpleasantness go away.
Dana’s only escape from the tediousness and fear of street life is making art. When she is caught spray painting underneath an overpass by a worker from a local centre for street youth, she is invited to drop in. At Sketches, Dana finds art, industrial arts and computer design studios, and friendship in the form of the centre’s director, Nicki, and a former street youth and now up-and-coming artist, Becca, who volunteers at the centre.
Though Brent and Ashley are initially sceptical about Dana’s increasing involvement in Sketches and its programs, they quickly recognize the potential of making sidewalk chalk pictures, after Nicki and Becca teach Dana and others how to create them. Soon the three young people are earning some decent money through the donations of admiring passers-by, and are thinking that, just possibly, they can make it off the street.
This is a good story about street youth and the hardships of life on the street. It explores some of the compelling reasons that push young men and women to leave home, and as well as the difficulties they face in making it off the street and into homes and jobs. Perhaps our politicians ought to be reading this. Sketches is the Intermediate Book Club’s choice for its second book of the year. I know there will be plenty of discussion about social justice.
FernFolio Editor

The Royal Woods by Matt Duggan

fernfolio — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 16:49:47 +0000

When their mother dies and their father sinks into a depression and stops noticing them, twelve year-old Sydney and her eight year-old brother, Turk, decide to run away and return to the farm where they spent the happiest summer of their lives.
The two children sneak onto a train going west and ride the rails from Toronto to Manitoba. As their long journey reaches its end, Sydney and Turk are filled with excitement at the thought of seeing Uncle Frank and Aunt Lily, and of spending another summer roaming the wide fields and playing along the banks of the Rat River, which runs through their farm. However anticipation turns to disappointment when they arrive at the farm and find it gone. In its place stands a new housing development, The Royal Woods, and a shopping mall.
With the farm gone and Uncle Frank and Aunt Lily moved away, Sydney and Turk must find somewhere to live and somehow to make enough money to eat. With the help of a Shep, a homeless man who lives in a shack along the Rat River, the children manage to unlock the door to one of the houses sitting empty and ready for sale in The Royal Woods.
After a rather comical run through a car wash, without a car, Sydney and Turk come to the attention of Kumar, the gas bar attendant. Kumar, an illegal immigrant from India, rapidly realizes that Sydney and her brother are runaways. He makes sure they eat properly and worries about whether they have a safe place to sleep. Kumar urges them to contact their father, but doesn’t insist when Sydney refuses to do so because he does not want to come to the attention of the police.
Sydney and Turk also make the acquaintance of three boys, Morton, Chad and Brad, who live in The Royal Woods, and who delight in looking for trouble. When this gang decides to have some ‘fun’ with Shep, Sydney and her brother come to the homeless man’s defence and start an escalating series of skirmishes that nearly ends in disaster.
The Royal Woods is an engaging story about two very likeable kids who set off to reclaim the past and find themselves, instead, in the midst of a suburban comic nightmare. They meet some very memorable characters, Shep, Kumar, Chip and Rene, and learn a thing or two about human nature and about themselves, too.
This is a lovely book, worth a read by children from Grade 4.
FernFolio Editor