Scarborough

I am from a place called Scarborough and return often. Scarborough is massive, multiracial and complex beyond imagining. How would you even begin to captures its flavor and tone? Catherine Hernandez has done just that - in a brilliant, compassionate and nuanced book that will - deservedly - win awards. She writes recognizable stories on recognizable streets; stories that run together in a small neighborhood in central east Scarborough. Both human and humane, she captures the day to day struggles and fears of both adults and children who mingle in the local school and apartment block. They are poor; in physical and emotional pain, trying so hard to survive and care for each other. Hernandez writes about these people - the unnoticed - the people who work in nail salons, rub and tugs, mom and pop restaurants. Her effortless ability to see the adult world through a child's eye is astonishing and at times as heartbreaking as anything I have ever read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to put aside genre fiction for a bit, and engage in a richer and deeper experience.

Well written; but poorly developed as a novel.

I am from a place called Scarborough and return often. Scarborough is massive, multiracial and complex beyond imagining. How would you even begin to captures its flavor and tone? Catherine Hernandez has done just that - in a brilliant, compassionate and nuanced book that will - deservedly - win awards. She writes recognizable stories on recognizable streets; stories that run together in a small neighborhood in central east Scarborough. Both human and humane, she captures the day to day struggles and fears of both adults and children who mingle in the local school and apartment block. They are poor; in physical and emotional pain, trying so hard to survive and care for each other. Hernandez writes about these people - the unnoticed - the people who work in nail salons, rub and tugs, mom and pop restaurants. Her effortless ability to see the adult world through a child's eye is astonishing and at times as heartbreaking as anything I have ever read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to put aside genre fiction for a bit, and engage in a richer and deeper experience.

This is the powerful story of several low-income children and families living in Scarborough from a variety of cultural backgrounds. The novel is told in several voices, which can unnecessarily complicate narratives, but here it is done beautifully, with each character lending the story their own personal flair. You love all the characters and keep rooting for them right to the end. Touching on a plethora of issues, from race to sexuality to poverty and prostitution, this excellent, compact novel is a must-read!

Born in Scarborough general hospital, and raised in an Ontario housing neighbourhood at Morningside and Ellesmere in the 80s and 90s, and I was both incredibly impressed and deeply saddened by Catherine Hernandez's book. I was impressed because the writing was crisp yet passionate, and the storytelling was as diverse as the characters, and by extension, Scarborough is. The details were so on point that I found myself reading and pausing every few minutes just to reminisce on moments I had in my youth that Ms. Hernandez captured so brilliantly. However, I was saddened because many of those memories were not very pleasant. Instead, they were filled with hardship and yearning to escape, and to read that those feelings from decades ago are so eerily mirrored in the present time, and that so little has changed in the place that moulded me into the man I am today, for better or worse, is beyond unfortunate. Either way, to read a book that inspires that much feeling is to be commended.

A Canada Reads 2018 finalist. If this book doesn't open your eyes, you will never see. The ups and downs of a group of diverse families ins a low income area of of the epynomynous Scarborough is beautiful, hopeful, and tragic. You will both cheer for and scream at the different adults. It's life lived raw. Although the book is set in Scarborough Ontario, there is a "Scarborough" in every large town in every country.

I had to read this book for a class, and didn't expect to like it so much! A paints a grim, but important picture of society today and the treatment of different groups of people. It's a very easy read, and everyone can gain something from it.

It was a pleasant read; and it also shows us the essential Scaroborough - many cultures, races, and ideas coming together in space of hopelessness and working through it.

This book is absolutely phenomenal. It arrived fairly quickly and the condition it was in was perfect. 5/5

Wow. Powerful read. Perfect to help teach teens empathy and perspective. Eye opening. Very well written.

I am from a place called Scarborough and return often. Scarborough is massive, multiracial and complex beyond imagining. How would you even begin to captures its flavor and tone? Catherine Hernandez has done just that - in a brilliant, compassionate and nuanced book that will - deservedly - win awards. She writes recognizable stories on recognizable streets; stories that run together in a small neighborhood in central east Scarborough. Both human and humane, she captures the day to day struggles and fears of both adults and children who mingle in the local school and apartment block. They are poor; in physical and emotional pain, trying so hard to survive and care for each other. Hernandez writes about these people - the unnoticed - the people who work in nail salons, rub and tugs, mom and pop restaurants. Her effortless ability to see the adult world through a child's eye is astonishing and at times as heartbreaking as anything I have ever read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to put aside genre fiction for a bit, and engage in a richer and deeper experience.

Well written; but poorly developed as a novel.

I am from a place called Scarborough and return often. Scarborough is massive, multiracial and complex beyond imagining. How would you even begin to captures its flavor and tone? Catherine Hernandez has done just that - in a brilliant, compassionate and nuanced book that will - deservedly - win awards. She writes recognizable stories on recognizable streets; stories that run together in a small neighborhood in central east Scarborough. Both human and humane, she captures the day to day struggles and fears of both adults and children who mingle in the local school and apartment block. They are poor; in physical and emotional pain, trying so hard to survive and care for each other. Hernandez writes about these people - the unnoticed - the people who work in nail salons, rub and tugs, mom and pop restaurants. Her effortless ability to see the adult world through a child's eye is astonishing and at times as heartbreaking as anything I have ever read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to put aside genre fiction for a bit, and engage in a richer and deeper experience.

This is the powerful story of several low-income children and families living in Scarborough from a variety of cultural backgrounds. The novel is told in several voices, which can unnecessarily complicate narratives, but here it is done beautifully, with each character lending the story their own personal flair. You love all the characters and keep rooting for them right to the end. Touching on a plethora of issues, from race to sexuality to poverty and prostitution, this excellent, compact novel is a must-read!

Born in Scarborough general hospital, and raised in an Ontario housing neighbourhood at Morningside and Ellesmere in the 80s and 90s, and I was both incredibly impressed and deeply saddened by Catherine Hernandez's book. I was impressed because the writing was crisp yet passionate, and the storytelling was as diverse as the characters, and by extension, Scarborough is. The details were so on point that I found myself reading and pausing every few minutes just to reminisce on moments I had in my youth that Ms. Hernandez captured so brilliantly. However, I was saddened because many of those memories were not very pleasant. Instead, they were filled with hardship and yearning to escape, and to read that those feelings from decades ago are so eerily mirrored in the present time, and that so little has changed in the place that moulded me into the man I am today, for better or worse, is beyond unfortunate. Either way, to read a book that inspires that much feeling is to be commended.

A Canada Reads 2018 finalist. If this book doesn't open your eyes, you will never see. The ups and downs of a group of diverse families ins a low income area of of the epynomynous Scarborough is beautiful, hopeful, and tragic. You will both cheer for and scream at the different adults. It's life lived raw. Although the book is set in Scarborough Ontario, there is a "Scarborough" in every large town in every country.

I had to read this book for a class, and didn't expect to like it so much! A paints a grim, but important picture of society today and the treatment of different groups of people. It's a very easy read, and everyone can gain something from it.

It was a pleasant read; and it also shows us the essential Scaroborough - many cultures, races, and ideas coming together in space of hopelessness and working through it.

This book is absolutely phenomenal. It arrived fairly quickly and the condition it was in was perfect. 5/5