Here's a blow by blow of my experiences while reading, "Tangerine". After twenty pages I said to myself, "Hm! The man can really write!". After fifty pages I said, "Wow! This book is as good as `Holes'!". After one hundred and fifty pages I was fully engrossed. After two hundred and fifty pages I was bodily grabbing people off of the street, forcing copies into their hands while chanting something along the lines of, "One of the greatest kid's books ever written!", or words to that extent. Now that I've finished the book and given myself a little time to reflect I can clearly decide whether or not this initial euphoria was short lived or not. Ladies and gentlemen, I am more than a little pleased to report that I was right all along. "Tangerine" is one of the greatest children's books to be written in the last ten years. It is brilliant, socially conscious, filled to the brim with sympathetic (and uniquely unsympathetic) characters, and funny to boot.
Paul Fisher is moving again. His father is a civil engineer by trade, so Paul's a little used to picking up and leaving for the next town. In this particular case, the family's moving to Florida to live in a gated community. Once there, each member will be able to start doing what they enjoy best. His brother, Erik, will continue to wow everyone with his football skills, his father will continue to worship those skills and spend all his time with his eldest, his mother will join the community's neighborhood association, and Paul will join his school's soccer team. Paul's a goalie by training, and despite his eye troubles (he has almost zero peripheral vision due to a mysterious accident in his youth) he's the best. Not like anyone notices, of course. The rest of the family is too caught up in what Paul has wryly dubbed the Erik Fisher Football Dream. The fact that Erik is a seriously disturbed individual seems to go entirely unseen by Paul's parents and it becomes clear that when his brother's activities go from threatening to criminal, Paul's the only one who can come out with the truth. Along the way he has to battle lightning storms, sinkholes, underground fires, flash frosts, and angry neighborhood associations.
That's the plot in its barest form. As I've copied it down here, I haven't even begun to delve into the fact that Paul transfers himself from his local hoity-toity school in the suburbs to a far more rough and tumble public facility. He makes friends with the kids in that school, faces racism on the part of his old school chums, and begins to understand a little more about white privilege. What other school age novel deals with racism, classism, social consciousness, and environmental concerns and so well at that? The precarious nature of Paul's new home becomes clearer and clearer when expensive koi fish are eaten by the native ospreys, muck fires spring up regularly in the backyard, and termites start eating the houses. The more the humans attempt to bend nature to their will, the funnier the situations become. This would not be a bad book to pair with the similarly Florida set story, "Hoot".
I was a little surprised at the psychopathic nature of Paul's brother. Having just finished reading Diana Wynne Jones's excellent, "Archer's Goon", which contains the most evil little sister in literature, I was amazed to find that my next book, "Tangerine", contains the world's worst elder brother. Erik and his brother have exactly one conversation in this entire novel. Beyond that, all we know of Erik comes from Paul's slowly clearing memories about the accident that damaged his sight and Erik's own actions. As Paul's parents strive to prove that they're a perfect family, things become worse and worse. I liked that Paul was as mature a kid as he was. Though he certainly says words and thoughts that are a little old for a seventh grader, you feel safe with him as your narrator. When he overreacts, you understand why. The same goes for when he doesn't react at all.
I'll skip telling you about the symbolism that also went into this tale. Needless to say, if you've a kid that needs to read a book that's rife with it, just pick this one out. I'm still amazed that this was Edward Bloor's first novel. The level of the writing is not only impressive, but also intense. This is the first book I've read (outside, I'll admit, of Harry Potter) that actually made me interested in sports. I loved reading about Paul's soccer games and how he compares them to football. Best of all are the characters in this tale. Even Paul's parents, horribly flawed but earnest, are at least trying to be good people. The book is, above all, honest. And I appreciated that.
The highest praise I can offer "Tangerine" is this: Long after I finished a chapter or two I would find myself puzzling over the multiple meanings and layers of the text. Whole sentences and ideas kept popping up to be reread and regurgitated. If you want a children's book that will make you think about a host of different ideas and points of view, read "Tangerine".
