Sports novelist Steven Barwin talks about the bullying theme in his new basketball novel

Q: As a middle school teacher you must see your fair share of bullying. Was there a particular incident that prompted you to write Fadeaway? 

A: Fadeaway came about from my experiences in the classroom and from coaching a junior basketball team. As a teacher I knew I had to write a book on bullying. Cyber and social bullying are something I see all the time, especially with girls, which is why my main character, Renna, is female. My angle was to take a very optimistic, glass half full type character and force her into the role of victim and see how she reacted.  The coach character is based on me. While there wasn’t bullying on my team, I was new to coaching and this lead to a coach character who was so distracted by his coaching duties that he was oblivious to the bullying issues on the team. Besides, so much social and cyber bullying plays out below the radar of teachers and coaches.

   

Q: What's the hardest part for you when it comes to dealing with bullying at school?

 A: All of it! Almost all of the bullying that I see is social bullying. And more among girls than boys. It’s like they’re walking a social high wire where friendships are forming and dissolving in front of my eyes everyday. I’m amazed at how quickly a student can be left out to dry and as a teacher I get frustrated because I can’t force friendships.  When it comes to cyberbullying, I had an incident when I taught grade seven. In an online chat room, unflattering comments were said about another student and myself. Someone on the chat printed it and reported it. It was horrific to see the parent’s reaction to what their daughter had written online. I remember how I felt reading about myself and I made sure to relate that experience to Renna when she is the target of cyber bullying. 

Q: What is being done in your school or classroom to fight bullying? Do you have any advice for other teachers about how to deal with bullying?

 A: My school takes a restorative approach. The bully and the victim meet face to face each with a buddy of their choice for support. A mediator asks a series of questions to engage in dialogue centered around getting the bully to understand the victim’s feelings and the impact they’ve had on them. It’s a great approach that forces both parties to deal with the situation. As for other teachers, this can be done in the classroom as well. It’s all about keeping an open dialogue and not letting friction build up to a boiling point. Students need to know that there is zero tolerance when it comes to bullying. 

Q: What about the kids themselves, what can they do?

 A: A big theme in the book is how Renna becomes a bully by being bullied. It’s a vicious turn I’ve seen a lot at school.  First stop is a great go-to source - kidshelpphone.ca/online (1-800-668-6868).  There is a lot of very valuable information on this site. At that moment of truth when someone admits to being a victim of bullying there’s an online forum where they can reach out to others. At the very least, that’s a good place to start. For cyberbullying, the message to bullies is that what goes online stays online. The message for victims is to learn how to print the screen. It’s the best way to get proof. Clicking the Alt and PrintScreen keys will take a screen shot and it can be saved and printed. I know the research and the students have been educated about the language around bullying (bully, victim, and bystander). One of the best messages I’ve heard about anti-bullying comes from Q-Mack (see foreword inFadeaway). He empowers students by telling them to one-up their bully by going out and becoming better at something than them. The entire bully and victim scenario is all about power ­— and those who are bullied can take back the power if they want it. 

Q: You've written quite a few books about middle school kids and sports: Icebreaker,Rock Dogs, Sk8er, and Slam Dunk, to name a few. Where do the ideas for  your characters from?

 A:  Coming up with ideas has never been a problem for me. Sometimes I think they’re floating in the air waiting from me to grab them, other times they’re inspired by something I see or hear. I’ve yet to write a book about a kid I’ve taught… it’s more about the environment, the vibe. I feel lucky being a teacher and a writer because every day I show up to school, it’s like walking into a focus group. I’m privy to tweens and their world. They’re my audience and I definitely cater my stories, my writing towards them. A big “character” in my books is also the Toronto area. Each book features a unique part of the city (Kensington Market, Castle Loma, Richmond Hill, etc.).

Q: In Fadeaway there was a scene where a group of grade 7 girls were in the cafeteria hovering around an iPhone that they weren't supposed to have. Did this scene come from a real experience?  

A: This moment was inspired by what I see at my school. When I was in grade six and seven, other kids would hover around someone who was willing to share their candy.  Now it’s the iPhone that gathers a crowd. Texting is a big part of a kid’s and teen’s world today. I see students in grades three and four with cell phones. Schools need to keep up with these changes because more kids are now going online via their smart phones than their computers. Since writing Fadeaway, my school has gone wireless and acceptance of technology brought in by the students has increased.

Q: Do you play all the sports you write about?

 A: Some of my best writing advice was from author Eric Walters. He told me that writing shouldn’t be all made up. He said experience it and write from your senses. I played ice hockey and as an adult I play floor hockey. As for rock climbing, I did research inside a rock climbing gym in Toronto and visited Rattle Snake Point. It took a while to build up the courage because I’m afraid of heights, but I eventually did go climbing. Maybe my next book should be about skydiving!

Teen titles on Kobo

We’re quickly adding to the list of our teen and children’s titles available as ebooks. We’re adding more titles to key ebook vendors every week. Right now, the following titles are available at the Kobo ebook store. These and other titles are coming soon to Barnes + Noble, Apple’s ibookstore, and Sony

Visit www.kobobooks.com to for these Fall 2010 titles in ebook format or read excerpts.

With a nickname like Scab, there’s little doubt that the central character in Robert Rayner’s new teen novel has been targeted by his classmates. In fact, he wears this name with a certain kind of pride as he stands apart from his peers. But he discovers that this attitude costs him the first relationship he’s ever cared about.Rayner’s novel is one of several in the Lorimer SideStreetsseries for young adults with a bullying theme. Other titles show different forms of bullying and different strategies by kids who successfully overcome the challenges it poses.

Did you know?

• 44 % of young people reported bullying others online
• bullying occurs once every 7 minutes in schools
• on average, bullying episodes are brief, lasting only 37 seconds
• in a recent survey 96.3% of teenage girls said that cliques existed in their schools 
• boys are just as likely as girls to form cliques  

Our new book on cliques makes it easy for kids to understand how cliques create opportunities for bullying behaviour, and how kids can respond to the challenges of cliques among their classmates and friends.

This 2011 book, Cliques by Kat Mototsune, is part of a series that tackles bullying in a new and appealing way. The 21-title series offers information about conflict-related behaviour kid-friendly ways. Graphic-novel style visuals are combined with games, puzzles, and humour – all intended to create better understanding of bullying-type behaviour and how to deal with it.

Cliques and other series books tackle their topic from three different vantage points: the target, the instigator, and the bystander. The idea is to help every kid gain a better understanding of why they and others act the ways they do – and how to respond in ways which help bring an end to the conflict.

We’ve just published a teacher resource guide to the eight conflict and bullying-oriented titles in the Deal with It series. It’s full of great ideas about how to address these topics in the classroom.

Whether you're observing Pink Shirt Day on Feb 29, 2012, or supporting the movement to stop bullying on any other day (or everyday) in your school or community, books in the Deal With It series will help get you started.

Among the 21 series titles are:

• Cliques: Deal with it using what you have inside by Kat Mototsune 
• Cyberbulling: Deal with it and ctrl alt delete it by Robyn MacEachern 
• Bullying: Deal with it before push comes to shove by Elaine Slavens

In 1948, Normie Kwong became the first Chinese Canadian to play in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Normie grew up in Calgary, Alberta, outside of the city’s Chinatown during an era when many Chinese Canadian children, even some of his own family members, faced hostility and prejudice. Normie found that his love of sport helped him fit in with the other kids in his neighbourhood. 

“That’s where it all started,” says Kwong. “We would play all kinds of sports, but football was the most popular.” 

Normie Kwong played football despite his mom's protests — he was smaller than the other players and his mom feared he would be hurt. But he used his small size to give him an advantage on the field and he became one of the fastest players, earning the nickname “China Clipper” after the fast-sailing trading ships of the mid-1800s. By the time he retired from the CFL, he had played for both the Stampeders and the Eskimos and held 30 CFL records.

But his recordbreaking days weren't over yet. In 2005, Normie Kwong became the first person of Chinese heritage to serve as Alberta’s Lieutenant-Governor. Says Normie, "They talk a lot about the American Dream. Well, my story has to be the Canadian Dream. My father was an immigrant grocer who couldn’t vote until his fortieth year in Canada and he has a son who became the Lieutenant-Governor of this province. There are not many places where you can achieve that kind of success.”

The book China Clipper by Richard Brignall traces the life of this Canadian hero. In it, Brignall shows how sports can bring people of different backgrounds together.

A recent review of the book in CM-Canadian Materials discusses several ways this book can be useful in a library or classroom setting: \"… China Clipper would be a beneficial addition to the sports genre section of a library. However, it could also be part of the Chinese Canadian sub-collection or multicultural collection within a public or school library. Teachers could use it within a unit that focuses on the lives of immigrants to Canada, the difficulties they face, and the opportunities that are open to them. In this context, teachers could stimulate discussion around how Normie Kwong was able to successfully overcome the obstacles present at the time for Chinese Canadians … It is through this book that the history of Chinese Canadians can be made accessible to young readers who can come to identify with Normie Kwong, even if they, themselves, do not play sports."—    

Reviewed by Huai-Yang Lim for CM Magazine. See full review here:
http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol17/no21/chinaclipper.html

It's not unusual for teenage girls to want to feel accepted by their peers. And some girls go to great lengths to fit in. Toronto author Ingrid Lee wanted to portray accurately some of the very tough circumstances that a daughter of recent immigrants to Canada can face when she wants to fit in.

The result is the recently-published teen novel Thief Girl,featuring Chinese Canadian main character Avvy Go. It's based on Lee's observations of the teenagers she encounters daily at the Scarborough high school where she teaches. 

In the book, the problems for Avvy go deeper than just not fitting in at school. Avvy\'s parents are struggling immigrants from China who run a food kiosk in a food court that is being targeted by local thugs. Avvy's younger brother, Tommy, gets picked on at school, and her cousin from China, who is in Canada on a temporary work visa, is hiding the fact that she's being sexually harassed by her employer.

Although her intentions are honourable, Avvy makes a bad decision to try and help her family — she steals money from a bank card she finds on the street. She soon finds that one lie turns into another as she tries to cover up what she's done. But as Avvy's mom warns, "Bad choice, good choice always come back — like ghosts."

CM Magazine calls Thief Girl "…an emotionally engaging novel" and "…a good read that relates the realistic problems of teens who don't fit in but strive to be accepted by their peers."

For an idea of  Ingrid Lee's style, check out this brief excerpt:

Thief Girl Excerpt:

Chapter 1

“#31, no onion,” I repeated mechanically from behind the counter. “No hot sauce. That’ll be $4.26. Five minutes.

”The woman ordering the food fussed over the coins, cobbling together change from pockets and pouches. I threw the money in the drawer quickly, before she could change her mind. I knew she wouldn’t be satisfied with her choice. All the signs were there, the anxious rereading of the menu and the side-glances at the plates of other people in the food court. The food would be too slimy. There would be too many strange vegetables. She should have stuck to the chow mein, or maybe some potstickers with plum sauce.

So what? It was none of my business. All I wanted to do was grab Tommy and go home. I had a history paper due in the morning.

Another customer headed for our stall. Bad luck, I thought to myself. It was Mr. Finch, one of my teachers from Oak Ridge High, the one to blame for the history assignment that loomed over me. He must have come straight from school. He was still dressed in his old wool jacket, the sleeves dipped in chalk.

“Wah!” my mother exclaimed from the cramped kitchen. She nagged at me in Mandarin. “Avvy, pay attention. This order ready to bag.

”Normally if I saw someone I knew at the food-and-trinkets court, which was hardly ever, I’d slip out of our stall and head past the bakery toward the tunnel, the wide mouth that separated us from the big mall. There, I could hide among the shoe shops and clothing stores. Too bad escape was out of the question this time. I kept my head down, bagging hot orders and taking new ones. Maybe Mr. Finch wouldn’t recognize me.

“Fried rice with egg, no pork, please,” Mr. Finch said. He patted the pocket of his jacket. “I seem to have forgotten the wallet. Good thing I keep a spare bill.

”I nodded, keeping my face angled toward the cash register. He moved aside and stood patiently by Madame Cho’s bakery next door. As soon as my mom scooped the rice meal, I bagged it, doing my signature twist to the plastic ends, nestling them inside each other. “Chopsticks?” I asked.

“No,” he replied. “Thanks anyway.”

“You’re welcome,” I mumbled.

Serving Mr. Finch in our food court was a bit of a jolt. The neighbourhood where I lived was a community of immigrants. Oak Ridge High was some distance away, across a rail bridge and through a maze of suburban streets. It was definitely part of the older, richer side of town. I only attended the school because the apartment building where we lived straddled some municipal line.

For the next forty minutes, orders came faster than spatters of fat.

“Beef with black bean and rice noodle.”

“Moo Goo Guy Pan.”

“Vegetable Lo Mein.”

I operated on automatic. My mother and father kept up a constant barrage of words while they worked. They drained noodles and tossed shavings of meat and vegetables back and forth in the woks of the cooker. The noise of the food court, the drone of our old fan, and the sizzling grease added to the din. When my brother Tommy arrived from school, he made everything worse.

Tommy never could settle down and stay quiet.

“Where’s your books?” my mother nagged. “How you going to live in a big house if you don’t do homework?” She grabbed a highlighter and some papers. “Here. Put yellow line on Heavenly Meal Special, #6. Make important.”

Tommy deflated as if someone had poked him with a pin. He crouched behind the freezer with the pile of menus. Afterwards he folded them into pamphlets. I felt a little sorry for him. “So, where’s your new friend?” I asked.

“He’s just stupid,” Tommy said. He scribbled over one of the papers.

I turned back to packing and rolled my eyes. It was always the same. My brother never kept a friend for long. He was a ten-year-old misfit. Right then he was wearing blue shorts, though summer was way over, and his legs stuck out like vermicelli. One knee was skinned. “Are those guys bothering you again?” I prodded in Mandarin as I took an order for pepper pork.

I didn’t hear him answer. The lady pacing between our stall and the bakery leaned over the counter. “Is my meal ready?” she whined. “I’ve been waiting at least fifteen minutes.”

I went to the kitchen to grab her order. My dad had put together her choices, three of them, in two-and-a-half minutes, tops. And she knew it. But I kept my face quiet. We never showed irritation to the customers. That was one thing my parents had drummed into me a long time ago. “Fork or chopsticks?” I asked, adding all the extras, the napkins and sauces.

“Four forks,” she said impatiently.

My mother gave Tommy some hot rice with shrimp. It was a wonder he wasn’t as fat as a blimp, the way she was always trying to get him to eat, coaxing him with bean curd and shredded vegetables. But he stayed as thin as a stick. That’s what my mother called him — her little stick-man. “Take some food to Mrs. Dong,” she said, shoving a Styrofoam container at him. “She need to eat too.”

Tommy liked Mrs. Dong. He skipped happily across the court toward the New Worlds Market, the produce store squashed between the food-and-trinket stalls. I watched him disappear behind a table stacked high with fresh melon. No fruit or vegetable would dare go bad on Mrs. Dong’s watch. She organized her staff like a drill squad.

I took orders until my head spun. Dinnertime was the only time when every food-stall tenant in our little court was happy, the only time when it looked like everybody’s troubles were over. It was the money hour, the chance to beat the odds. It was also the time when my parents needed my help. The rest of the day they waited for customers . . .waited and hoped, just like everyone else in the rest of the stalls.

It wasn’t right, the way I saw it. Maybe the court wasn’t glitzy like the mall on the far side of the tunnel. Maybe it was just a dumpy little hole in the wall, left out during some renovation. But the cooks knew their food. Over at Bombo’s Barbecue, Bombo sliced and diced his pork like an artist. He made sure all his customers got a strip of skin, roasted crispy and golden. At the Red Green House, Mr. and Mrs. Patnam stirred up a mean curry laced with ginger and basil. And Madame Cho’s egg tarts were richer than gold.

The whole court should have been humming with business. Instead, it limped along like an old car that needed a tune-up.

Thief Girl by Ingrid Lee is a part of the Lorimer SideStreets series of hi-lo fiction books for young adults. To see more titles in this series visit: www.lorimer.ca