Description
Most kids meet their parents when they're born. All they need to do to impress them is poop, sleep and makegoo-goo ga-ga sounds. But I'm twelve. None of that is going to impress my father.
Sam thinks he's a weird-looking white kid with an afro. He lives with his white mum (annoying but not smelly) and brown dog Trevor (smelly but not annoying). He's never met his father. He just knows that his father is black.
But a surprise visit has Sam questioning who he really is. Is he a white kid with a black dad? Or a black kid with white skin? Or half-black and half-white?
Not only does Sam want to know these answers, he has to know them to finish his annoying homework and perform in the school concert. But how can he make his outside match his insides if he doesn't know who he is?
A delightfully funny story about family and identity, and what it means to be truly Sam.
Review
Twelve-year-old Sam is in his last year of primary school, and he struggles to own his identity. He is basically white skinned, like his single parent Mum, but he has an afro that is probably like the Dad he has never known (and his racist Nanna doesn't help the situation!).
His Mum and Dad travelled together when they were younger, and they grew apart before his Mum knew she was having Sam. Sam has always thought that his Dad had left his pregnant girlfriend behind, but it turns out he never knew of Sam’s existence at all...
This all changes when his Dad travels from South Africa on business, meets up with Sam’s Mum and learns the truth. He has his own family with a wife and two younger children in South Africa, but he is keen to get to know Sam.
Sam's class is doing an identity piece as their last big assignment at school and this poses a huge dilemma for Sam. How can he finish his assignment when he doesn’t even know who he is?!
Will he ever form a bond with his Dad, and become comfortable in the skin he is in?
Written with lots of puns and real humour, this is a delightful story, filled with themes of identity, family and racism. It is suitable for upper primary students, but I feel the best audience is lower secondary students, especially reluctant readers who will enjoy the laughs while reading this excellent story.
Reviewed by Rob
