Lost Goat Lane

Nanette Morton teaches English at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Things aren’t going well for 13-year-old Kate Martin and her brothers,
Chip and Justin. Their father went out to California and never came
back, an alligator just ate the family dog, their mother works all the
time, and they’re too poor to replace the school clothes they’ve
outgrown. On top of that, the bank won’t renew their mortgage and they
might have to leave their small Florida farm. Things start to get
interesting when Kate makes friends with Ruby Wilson, a young
African-American woman who has moved back to Florida from New York. The
friendship, however, is not an easy one. Ruby is aloof at first,
thinking that the skinny Martins, in their scruffy clothes, are “white
trash,” while Kate’s mother assumes that Ruby, already a mother, is
a bad influence. In spite of this and the difference in their ages, the
two become friends. Ruby secretly solves Kate’s clothing problem, and
encourages Kate to accept her maturing body. Left alone while their
mother works, the Martin children find friendship at the Wilsons’ and
Ruby and Kate even start a business together. In the post–Civil Rights
era, the Martins, who are white, and the Wilsons, who are black, both
learn not just about prejudice but prejudging. As Ruby’s brother
Booker points out, everyone prejudges; however, opening one’s mind and
letting go of those judgments avoids prejudice.

This well-written, nuanced book could provide the basis for many
classroom discussions. Highly recommended.