Mundy Pond.

R. Gordon Moyles is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Alberta, co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British
Views of Canada, 1880–1914, and author of The Salvation Army and the
Public.

In the 1970s, Mundy Pond, once the ‘back door’ of St. John’s but now fast becoming a respectable suburb, was a place full of adventure, mystery, and challenge for a 12-year-old boy. Certainly Gordie McAllister finds it so, and part of the charm of this novel is its evocation Gordie’s lifestyle—of the time and place in which he lives, the games he plays, the backyards, the small grocery stores, the rubbish-littered playgrounds, and the half-polluted pond he visits and explores. Equally appealing is Maunder’s vivid depiction of the people who lived their fictional lives along that stretch of Blackmarsh Road. More than just a nostalgic revisit, however, Mundy Pond is an impressive “coming-of-age” novel; certainly with many of the usual features of that genre—teenage rivalry, tests of friendship, first loves, dreams of fame and so forth—but told with a passion, and peopled with such unforgettable characters, that it assumes a distinct identity. As such it a nice blend of the universal and the particular, and will engage not only the reader familiar with that unique part of the world but those who want to broaden their horizons. For the juvenile reader, especially, Mundy Pond should prove a rewarding experience.