Welcome to Litsy!

A 12-year-old brown-skinned girl wakes up in a treehouse with no memory of her past or how she got there. There are no other humans around, but she does make friends with animals… and slowly the inklings of a traumatic past are revealed. A moving blend of whimsy and serious issues in a children‘s novel aimed at Grade 5-7. #racism #Canadian #kidlit

“ […] ‘How on earth did you get that mess on your back?‘ she asked. But I did not tell her. I didn‘t want her to know what happened. Didn‘t want her to share my humiliation.”
“You had no reason to be humiliated,” Croc Harry said. “The boy shamed himself by acting badly.”
“But haven‘t you noticed—when somebody does something bad to you, the natural instinct is for you to feel bad?”

“A hunter in the Contested Lands called me Black. And the giant called me Black. I hated being reduced to a colour.”
“You were right to be upset. They spoke with ugliness in their hearts. But Black is another thing when it is said in the right way. When it is said respectfully, it refers to people who have a common origin and whose ancestors came long ago from a place called Africa.

“You are clearly a willy lump lump.”
“Willy lump lump. Is that an insult?”
“In the same ballpark as fool. Ignoramus.”

This is a new book from the author of “The Book of Negroes“. This one is for the middle school reader (~9-12 years). It is an fun adventure fantasy with great humour and characters. The vocabulary is a great part of it (both real and made up words) and there is even a short dictionary at the back. It also deals with racism, so it is not without depth. I really enjoyed it and gave it 4/5 stars.