Taking Sides

Jean Free, a library consultant, is a retired public-school teacher and
librarian in Whitby, Ontario.

Twelve-year-old Coralea Ellis (Lea) is starting junior high and feeling
lonely because her best friend has moved away. Being black in a mostly
white school, confronting racism from a new friend’s sister, poor
sportsmanship in the volleyball tournament, and teenage drinking
complicate the start of Lea’s Grade 7 year. Finally, she learns that
“people have lots of ignorance if you want to give them time to show
it.” She decides, after talking to her father and her Aunt Cora, to
“work on [her] dreams,” because “if you govern yourself with your
fists, with anger, then you’ve got no time for any of your dreams.”

Taking Sides examines social situations for early adolescents in team
playing and in coping with their out-of-control emotions as their school
turns into a racial battleground. The young people do eventually manage
to work things out, learning about themselves and maturing in the
process.

Taking Sides is a relevant novel written in a conversational style that
would make a fast read for students in grades 6 to 8. Other novels by
Gunnery include I’m Locker 145, Who Are You? and Chewing Gum and Other
Crimes.