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kirstinlwx's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
With a bit of a tough start, infuriating because of its incredibly realistic depiction of social systems and programming in Scarborough/the GTA, I wasn’t sure if this was going to be the book for me. But then I couldn’t put it down.
My heart ached and burst for all of these characters, and the weaving of their stories struck realization after realization of deep interconnectedness. Hernandez depicts each of these characters, even those who only get a single chapter, with a depth and rawness that I couldn’t look away from.
The recognition of the human experience in this book is beautiful, and I’ll be recommending it to many people (especially my friends in the nonprofit sector).
My heart ached and burst for all of these characters, and the weaving of their stories struck realization after realization of deep interconnectedness. Hernandez depicts each of these characters, even those who only get a single chapter, with a depth and rawness that I couldn’t look away from.
The recognition of the human experience in this book is beautiful, and I’ll be recommending it to many people (especially my friends in the nonprofit sector).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Ableism, Sexual content, and Classism
Minor: Domestic abuse, Hate crime, and Police brutality
nvrrrdie's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book was really far out of my comfort zone so I don't really know if I can give it a fair review. I agree with other readers that people may want to review content warnings before reading at their own discretion.
This book had powerful character writing and was very emotional, which I appreciated. I think it was trying to do something really strong with the families depicted and I think it was successful for the most part.
I don't live in Scarborough, but I do live in the GTA so some parts of this were close to home for me. However I didn't like how some characters felt like examples or lessons rather than fully written people. I felt like this was really strong with Viktor's character and it was just kind of reductive and disappointing. Those parts of the story felt like a cheap way of viewing others experiences as displayed for an outside observer and I don't feel like it was useful to the greater picture of the story either.
There are several issues I take with this book but the writing was really interesting and I think it was a good read.
This book had powerful character writing and was very emotional, which I appreciated. I think it was trying to do something really strong with the families depicted and I think it was successful for the most part.
I don't live in Scarborough, but I do live in the GTA so some parts of this were close to home for me. However I didn't like how some characters felt like examples or lessons rather than fully written people. I felt like this was really strong with Viktor's character and it was just kind of reductive and disappointing. Those parts of the story felt like a cheap way of viewing others experiences as displayed for an outside observer and I don't feel like it was useful to the greater picture of the story either.
There are several issues I take with this book but the writing was really interesting and I think it was a good read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Excrement, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Classism
bookthia's review against another edition
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
A strong 4.5 review for this one. Told in multiple voices, the story of a community in east Scarborough, where poverty, addiction. racism and homelessness are rife. In real life too. These characters felt alive to me, real. I can easily imagine this being a true story. There are good people and bad people and sometimes good people who are also bad people -- this book illuminates them all, including how good people are forced into bad choices. Using children as some voices allowed Hernandez to illustrate the loss of innocence in a powerful way. The character of Mina was a conduit for illustrating institutional racism so authentically. Brilliant. This book was in Canada Reads in 2022 and could easily have been the winner in any other year. Highly recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, and Racial slurs
kelly_e's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Title: Scarborough
Author: Catherine Hernandez
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.75
Pub Date: May 22, 2017
T H R E E • W O R D S
Tender • Necessary • Authentic
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Scarborough is a real-life, low-income and culturally diverse neighbourhood east of Toronto, that suffers from high rates of poverty, drugs, crime, and urban blight. Told from multiple perspectives Scarborough tells a fictionalized coming-of-age account of three young children, and the tight-knit community leaning on one another in an attempt to rise above aversity and discrimination.
💭 T H O U G H T S
Of the five contenders for Canada Reads 2022, Scarborough was the last one I picked up. And I must say I was absolutely blown away by it. In fact, I was amazed by the quality of this year's Canada Reads shortlist in general, as well as the fascinating debates, which took place from March 28 - 31.
Back to the book, this is another heavy hitting Canada Reads finalist where the structure gave me a front row seat into the minds of each character, thus allowing me to understand the workings of the mind on both an individual and collective level. Told over the span of a year, it was a coming-of-age story but also a story of community, or coming together through the most difficult of circumstances.
Catherine Hernandez writes with such grace, and paints the scene so vividly there's no need to have an awareness of the area of Scarborough ahead of time. In fact, the conditions, the themes and the experiences she explores in this book are so real, and apply to so many different low-income communities across Canada, and the world. Systemic discrimination is so real, and we as a society often turn a blind eye.
Written primarily from a youth perspective, something I greatly appreciated, really opened my eyes to societal issues from the eyes of a child. How they are forced to grow up quickly or take on rolls no child should have to. And yet, I cannot talk about this book without mentioning Ms. Hina. She was a ray of light from start to finish, attempting to create a safe space for the kids and their families. Every impoverished community, need 1000 people like her, willing to risk their personal security to help those less fortunate.
Scarborough is filled with so much human ugliness, but there's also an undercurrent of love and connection. There were moments I felt so ashamed of humanity and in the next moment I'd be overcome with love for humanity. The array of emotion felt so human. There were tears and there was laughter. There was heartbreak and there was joy. Bing, brought so much light and joy to my time with this book. His evolution was absolutely beautiful to watch unfold.
It did not surprise me to learn Catherine Hernandez is a screenwriter, as this book read very much like a script. My only criticism would be that I wanted so much more of these characters, something the writing style didn't allow for.
I'll definitely be keeping my eyes out for whatever Catherine Hernandez writes next, she's just brilliant! Please, do yourself a favourite and pick this book up. It is my hope that it can spark change and that there are a million other Ms. Hina's out there. I've since learned it has been adapted for TV, and I'd be interested in checking out.
Now that I've completed this year's shortlist, I hope to pick up some contenders from past years, and continue exploring the 2022 longlist selections as well.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• all Canadians
• readers who like realistic fiction
• social workers/case workers/policy makers... the list goes on and on
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"'You will never be too much. You will never be too little, Bernard. You be you.' My heart fluttered hearing her says that."
Author: Catherine Hernandez
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.75
Pub Date: May 22, 2017
T H R E E • W O R D S
Tender • Necessary • Authentic
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Scarborough is a real-life, low-income and culturally diverse neighbourhood east of Toronto, that suffers from high rates of poverty, drugs, crime, and urban blight. Told from multiple perspectives Scarborough tells a fictionalized coming-of-age account of three young children, and the tight-knit community leaning on one another in an attempt to rise above aversity and discrimination.
💭 T H O U G H T S
Of the five contenders for Canada Reads 2022, Scarborough was the last one I picked up. And I must say I was absolutely blown away by it. In fact, I was amazed by the quality of this year's Canada Reads shortlist in general, as well as the fascinating debates, which took place from March 28 - 31.
Back to the book, this is another heavy hitting Canada Reads finalist where the structure gave me a front row seat into the minds of each character, thus allowing me to understand the workings of the mind on both an individual and collective level. Told over the span of a year, it was a coming-of-age story but also a story of community, or coming together through the most difficult of circumstances.
Catherine Hernandez writes with such grace, and paints the scene so vividly there's no need to have an awareness of the area of Scarborough ahead of time. In fact, the conditions, the themes and the experiences she explores in this book are so real, and apply to so many different low-income communities across Canada, and the world. Systemic discrimination is so real, and we as a society often turn a blind eye.
Written primarily from a youth perspective, something I greatly appreciated, really opened my eyes to societal issues from the eyes of a child. How they are forced to grow up quickly or take on rolls no child should have to. And yet, I cannot talk about this book without mentioning Ms. Hina. She was a ray of light from start to finish, attempting to create a safe space for the kids and their families. Every impoverished community, need 1000 people like her, willing to risk their personal security to help those less fortunate.
Scarborough is filled with so much human ugliness, but there's also an undercurrent of love and connection. There were moments I felt so ashamed of humanity and in the next moment I'd be overcome with love for humanity. The array of emotion felt so human. There were tears and there was laughter. There was heartbreak and there was joy. Bing, brought so much light and joy to my time with this book. His evolution was absolutely beautiful to watch unfold.
It did not surprise me to learn Catherine Hernandez is a screenwriter, as this book read very much like a script. My only criticism would be that I wanted so much more of these characters, something the writing style didn't allow for.
I'll definitely be keeping my eyes out for whatever Catherine Hernandez writes next, she's just brilliant! Please, do yourself a favourite and pick this book up. It is my hope that it can spark change and that there are a million other Ms. Hina's out there. I've since learned it has been adapted for TV, and I'd be interested in checking out.
Now that I've completed this year's shortlist, I hope to pick up some contenders from past years, and continue exploring the 2022 longlist selections as well.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• all Canadians
• readers who like realistic fiction
• social workers/case workers/policy makers... the list goes on and on
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"'You will never be too much. You will never be too little, Bernard. You be you.' My heart fluttered hearing her says that."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Islamophobia
Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Abandonment, and Classism
Minor: Death and Fire/Fire injury
police profilingramblereader's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, and Abandonment
Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, Excrement, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment
reading_rainbows's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Experiences of struggling families in Scarborough,ON told through diverse voices: children, parents, and an educator who runs the program they visit.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Abandonment, and Classism
Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, and Islamophobia
Minor: Death, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Fire/Fire injury
thebacklistborrower's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Scarborough was the second Canada Reads 2022 book that I read, immediately after reading Five Little Indians, and is also a book ultimately about the connections we have and communities we make.
Scarborough follows the story of a cast of characters living in Scarborough, loosely connected through a literacy program offered through a local library, headed by a muslium woman named Ms Hina. While the program is intended to be only a literacy program, Ms Hina turns it into a social program, with meals for the many families who show up in need of breakfast or snack.
This book was slim but packs a punch. Like Five Little Indians (I’m going to stop saying this now), it was a hard read. The experiences in this book are real. They are happening right now, in Scarborough, and in my neighbourhood. The poverty, racism, sexism, and abuse are so real in this book. What saved me when reading this book was Ms Hina and a shelter supervisor who brought care to these folk who had so few people caring for them.
The connections in this book are in multitude: between Ms Hina and the kids in her program, and their parents; the connections between the kids themselves; kids and the street folk that live outside their homes, and the neighbours that look after them. Some of them are fleeting connections, like the man who heads to a gay hookup, and some are deep, if not lasting.
Any reader of this book will connect over the intensity of this book, and the stories it tells. Whether or not a reader has the lived experience of those in poverty, perhaps they have been the privileged kid looking down on those with less because that is what their parents--and society-- have taught them. Or they have been those like Ms Hina and the shelter worker, creating safe spaces and caring for all, despite everything.
This was a beautiful book and will be one of my top picks this year.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Islamophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment
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