Boy O'Boy
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year, the Geoffrey Bilson Award, the Ruth Schwartz Award, and an ALA Notable Books List selection
Martin O'Boy's life is not easy. His beloved Granny has just died, his pregnant mother and father fight all the time and his twin, Phil, is completely incapacitated. Martin is the one his mother counts on.
But life in Ottawa's Lowertown is not all bad. He has his best friend, Billy Batson (a.k.a. Captain Marvel), the movies, his cat Cheap and there's the glamorous Buz from next door, who is off at the war.As the war comes to an end with the bombing of Hiroshima -- on Martin's birthday -- Ottawa is in a state of turmoil. Returning soldiers, parties, fights and drunks fill the streets.
It would all be very exciting, except for one thing. In their endless pursuit of more funds Martin and Billy have joined the church choir -- as summer boys. And the organist, Mr. T.D.S. George, is awfully fond of Martin. But Martin, despite his hardships, has a pure soul and his Granny's love, Billy's friendship, Buz's imminent return, and even his mother's reliance on him, which help him to deliver a kind of justice to Mr. George, and to heal himself and others.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The cherubic-looking boy on the cover of Canadian author Doyle's (Uncle Ronald) latest effort belies the emotional weight of this moving and often disturbing tale. Martin O'Boy lives in Canada in the waning years of WW II, with his parents and his mentally ill twin brother. As the story opens, Martin's beloved Scottish grandmother has just passed away; meanwhile, his mother and alcoholic father (who will drink from the Aqua Velva bottle when there is nothing else available), constantly argue about anything, but chiefly money. Martin and his friend have a lucrative job singing in the church choir, but it requires them to spend time with the unsettling Mr. George, the choir director. Mr. George takes Martin for ice cream, and tricks him into eating a sundae laced with cr me de menthe and brandy, which leads to a scene of molestation, devastating in its minimalism. Other minor story lines echo the me-against-the-world mindset that young Martin is slowly developing, with the ethical voice of his grandmother always ringing in his head. Although Doyle's narrative occasionally hits a false note ("I open the door. The door to the house where I don't want to live. Please somebody. Take care of me. Love me"), overall, it comes across honestly and effectively. In one standout scene, when Mr. George threatens to take Martin's youthful beauty away from him, he simply replies, to himself, "You already have, Mr. George." Despite the boy's relentlessly bleak circumstances, he manages to keep some hope alive. Ages 11-13.
