ID: Novel about American boy attending British public school
Anne M. Marble
American boy who attended a British public school. (It was his
father's idea.) The American kid made friends with a Pakistani boy in
the school. The other boys sometimes used racial epithets when
referring to the Pakistani boy -- this befuddled the American boy.
However, the worst offender was their soccer coach, who treated the
Pakistani boy badly. The big turning point came when the Pakistani boy
was very badly injured in a game, and the coach refused to let him get
proper medical treatment. The boys ended up bonding as they took care
of the Pakistani boy, whose leg had been broken.
It appears that either the author didn't have a grasp on the political
situation, or that he was demonstrating that the students didn't get
it. The American boy was shocked when his British schoolmates didn't
know the name of the U.S. president. After all, he knew the name of
the queen. The British boys complained that we kept changing
presidents too often. Uhm, you mean in the same way England changes
prime ministers every few years? :->
This book may be obscure -- the only copy I ever saw was at that
library, with the library binding. Maybe it was made just for schools
and libraries.
--
This message may contain violent punctuation, explicit grammatical
errors, and a shocking ending with a preposition.
KING9089
<<In the 1970s, I read a novel (for the middle grade audience) about an
friends with a Pakistani boy in the school.>>
Finally, one I know! Wow! The book is
"It's Murder at St. Basket's" by James Lincoln Collier.
I read it because I was interested in the blurb, but I
found it a resolutely mediocre book...
Didn't know anyone else in the world had ever read it...
Cara
Anne M. Marble
> Anne wrote:
> <<In the 1970s, I read a novel (for the middle grade audience) about
an
> American boy who attended a British public school....The American
kid made
> friends with a Pakistani boy in the school.>>
>
> Finally, one I know! Wow! The book is
> "It's Murder at St. Basket's" by James Lincoln Collier.
> I read it because I was interested in the blurb, but I
> found it a resolutely mediocre book...
That's the book. I loved it at the time, but if I read it today, I'd
probably be bored. I would like to know for sure, though. However,
when I looked it up at ABE's site, I found that prices ranged from $12
to @23. I'll look for it elsewhere.
> Didn't know anyone else in the world had ever read it...
We might be the only two who have read it. I couldn't even find a
reference to it through Google.com, although many of J.L. Collier's
better known books (such as "My Brother Sam Is Dead") are listed.
Elizabeth Thomsen
: We might be the only two who have read it. I couldn't even find a
: reference to it through Google.com, although many of J.L. Collier's
: better known books (such as "My Brother Sam Is Dead") are listed.
No, this was reasonably popular in its day-- I was just starting out as a
children's librarian when it came out, and this is one that I liked and
successfully recommended many times over the years. I just checked my
local library catalog, and there are still a couple of copies listed,
which means it should be reasonably available through public libraries in
the U.S. In fact, I think I'll read it again myself.
Elizabeth Thomsen