Each chapter introduces us to meaningful people in Journey's life through her point of view. Gabrielle Prendergast has created a multicultural community of complex, authentic characters, just like the real people who lived and continue to live in the neighbourhood. Some kids only come to class once or twice a week, or they come late every day." Her remarkable teacher, Miss Bickerstaff, probably agrees with Journey that, "it must be hard to be a teacher on the Eastside." On her way to her multicultural school, Journey sometimes has to "step over puddles of pee or worse things, but mostly the streets are quiet." At school, "Some kids at school don't even speak English. Prendergast captures the reality of the neighbourhood in the small details. In the middle of coming to terms with the return of a father she has never met, Journey Wind Song, a ten year old precocious preteen, gets it into her head to make sure that these two pandas, who are being held in warehouse somewhere in East Vancouver, are being taken care of, and end up safely at their destination in a Washington Zoo. While this is quality historical fiction and the gift of pandas from China to the United States is real, this book becomes alternative reality with the imaginary stopover of the pandas here in Vancouver, BC. It's set in the early 1970's in the downtown eastside of Vancouver in an inner city area known to locals as The Projects.
Pandas on the Eastside is undoubtedly one of the grooviest books I've read in ages. I've fallen hard for this story of Journey Wind Song and her community. Īpparently, you are not supposed to start a book review claiming that you love the book. This review is originally from my blog at.
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