Camels Can Make You Homesick: And Other Stories

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

The quality of these five stories about being a Canadian child of South Asian parents is uneven. In “Peacocks and Bandaids,” Jaya Gopal is asked to give a demonstration of classical Indian dancing at the grade 8 graduation, but she fears that this public act will draw further attention to her difference from the other students. On the day of the dance, someone maliciously destroys the peacock feather portion of her costume; however, one of the male students who Jaya thought disliked her repairs the damage. “Who Needs Heroes” is the book’s least successful and most unconvincing story as Raj Dhillon, a boy from a Sikh family, becomes terrified on the overnight survival portion of a wilderness camping experience. The only story not set in Canada is “Camels Can Make You Homesick,” wherein Zorana visits her parents’ homeland of Pakistan and gets carried off by a runaway camel which deposits her at a house where no one speaks English. The last two stories are the strongest. When Amit’s Dida or grandmother comes to visit from India, she puts her own imprint on the household. Amit decides Dida needs to partake of Canadian ways and takes her to eat at McDonalds. Shanaz Ali, in “Figs for Everyone,” did not realize that the henna designs placed on her hands during the Muslim festival of Eid would not wash off and she would therefore have to go to school with the intricate patterns on her palms still visible to her classmates. Each story is illustrated by a single full-page drawing. The stories, in addition to giving indications of the racial prejudice that confronts some South Asian children, reveal the children’s own self-doubts about being part of two cultures. The author, born in Pakistan, also suggests that the cultural mosaic of Canada could be further enriched if South Asian children would share their Asian heritage rather than try to hide it. Though some readers will be found among students in grades 4 to 7, the stories lack sufficient characterization or plot to attract a large audience.