Peet, Mal with Meg Rosoff. Beck. Candlewick, 2017. $17.99. 261p. ISBN 978-0-7636-7842-5. Ages 14-Adult. P7Q10
From Liverpool (England) to America and across the Canadian prairie, biracial Beck travels through a life of abuse and violence as he searches for family. Nicknamed Chocolat in an early 20th-century orphanage after his white prostitute mother dies and his black sailor father had long ago disappeared, Beck is subjected to sexual abuse by a member of the Christian Brotherhood before he is sent be fostered as a child by a racist, rural farm family who only wants free labor. The book was partially written by noted English author Mal Peet before his death and then completed by award-winning Meg Rosoff. Together they chronicle Beck’s wandering as he briefly finds love before being forced out by circumstances. The solution is half-Scottish, half-Siksika Grace McAllister when Beck finds a home on her land and a domestic partner in the older woman.
Verdict: The brilliant writing with vivid settings and intense characterizations alternate between pain and hope. Beck was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal in 2017, a British literary award that annually recognizes one outstanding new book for children or young adults.
May/June 2017 review by Nel Ward.
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