Detour Ahead by Pamela Ehrenberg & Tracy Lopez; Agawam, Massachusetts: PJ Publications © 2022; ISBN 9781736-557358, 348 pages.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – This marvelously written story relates a growing friendship between a 12-year-old girl, soon to celebrate her bat mitzvah, and a slightly older boy, whose family is from El Salvador and who expresses himself in poetry.
They meet by accident, literally an accident, when a bus on which Gilah is traveling to school bumps the rear tire of a bicycle on which Guillermo is riding. The boy was thrown from the bike between two cars. As the bus driver appeared not to notice, Gilah, who is on the autism spectrum, yells “Someone Fell Off a Bike” prompting the bus driver to stop. Guillermo was not hurt, but his bicycle was so bent, he could not ride it anymore. This required him to take the same bus every day on which Gilah goes to her special school.
Recognizing her, he sits next to her, and they begin a conversation. They take each other for how they are and over time and many bus rides their friendship deepens. We learn that she is fascinated by breakdancing, so much so that she imagines Hebrew letters to portray breakdancing moves. And we come to recognize that because she doesn’t easily recognize social cues, she often does not know how to react to people or situations. She does her best to remember rules of social conduct.
He is a gentle soul as reflected in his poetry, which he writes about his family, the activities of his life, and increasingly about Gilah. The novel finds them focusing on important events in their lives: her bar mitzvah and his first oral recitation at a poetry contest.
Co-authors Ehrenberg and Lopez have provided for upper elementary and middle school students a book about true friendship. It reminded me of a verse by J.P. McEvoy that my late father, Martin B. Harrison, liked to recite.
A friend is not a feller
Who is taken in by sham.
A friend is one who knows our faults
And doesn’t give a damn.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com