Eating Between the Lines

Tony Barclay is a retired juvenile corrections probation officer and a
former public-health research associate at the University of Toronto.

Major’s latest book is both amusing and original. Jackson, the young
protagonist, attends high school and suffers the joys and angsts of all
youth. He loves his parents, but they embarrass him. He yearns to date
the prettiest girl in the school, but she seems indifferent to him.
Finally, he has problems with home cooking that is virtually inedible.

But Jackson discovers that he has the ability to physically enter into
the stories he reads. This at least gives him great marks at school: his
book reports sound like the eyewitness accounts that they really are. In
the midst of all this he becomes aware of the imminent breakup of his
parents’ marriage. This is a real problem and one that he must add to
all the others.

Somehow Major succeeds in blending all these diverse elements into a
most readable, often highly amusing, and almost believable book. His
young hero is a very likable character whose intelligence, courage, and
very human feelings make us cheer for him all the way. In the end, he is
also sensible enough to know the difference between fiction and reality.


This is a book that any high-school student who likes literature at all
should enjoy. It deals in a delightful and light-hearted way with
adolescent life. It brings some of the great stories of the past to life
in an original manner and introduces a character we are glad to know.