This short novel for teens tells
the story of Sophie, an English sixteen-year-old who spends a summer in
Brooklyn.  She comes from a rather prim
family living in a London suburb, and she finds herself in a very different
sort of environment.  Mrs. Salamanca,
who calls herself Jake, is an old friend of her mother, and she has three
children, Cherokee, Gallup and Tampa.  
They live in a diverse neighborhood, and live a rather bohemian
lifestyle, eating only vegetarian food, their house in a total mess.  At first Sophie hates it, because she finds
everyone strange and she has to look after young Gallup and Tampa, who are a
handful.  She had expected to spend all
her time shopping on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and instead she spends her time
worrying about getting mugged in areas where she is the only white person
around.  Of course, she comes to
overcome her fears and has a great time, and by the end of her stay she
considers the Salamancas her second family. 
It is a funny novel that plays on both cultural and class difference,
and it shows how Sophie comes to put her own family and friends back home in
perspective and she makes new friends with people who are very different from
her.  There’s no great psychological
depth here, and some crucial parts of the story go very quickly without much
detail.  It is a quick enjoyable read that
will especially appeal to Anglophiles and New Yorkers. 

© 2005 Christian Perring. All
rights reserved.

Christian Perring, Ph.D., is
Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island, and editor
of Metapsychology Online Review.  His main research is on philosophical
issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Children