Summary
Laura
Laura’s Mommy is rushing her to get ready and orders her to grab her clothes because she is going to her Daddy’s. Mommy slaps her and cusses at her to hurry up. As they prepare to leave, she tells Laura to be very quiet.
They step outside and Mommy puts her finger to her lips as a reminder. She leaves the silver key on the table in the apartment. At that moment Mrs. Kamal opens her door and sees them. She seems to know what they are doing and says nothing. It is cold and windy and Mommy urges Laura on.
Letter from the Ontario Reads Literacy Program Addressed to Hina Hassani
This letter offers Hina the position of Program Facilitator at the Rouge Hill Public School location of the Ontario Reads Literacy Program, a “provincial intuitive to prepare children for scholastic success and to encourage families to be a part of their children’s learning” (13). It lists the ways in which it plans to help facilitate such involvement and says that the children will be infants up to ten years old. Each center has its own culture and energy due to the socioeconomic and demographic composition of the area.
Part One: Fall
Sylvie
Mama is hurrying Sylvie along so they can make it to the shelter by five to have the kitchen in peace. Mama is talking about Johnny, Sylvie’s brother, which she always seems to be doing. They thought Johnny was a genius at first but his incessant humming made it clear something else was going on, and he needed to go to the walk-in clinic.
At the clinic, the receptionist asks for Johnny’s health card. They sit and wait. A man comes out of the bathroom, asking the receptionist when he will get his prescription. She replies that they do not prescribe narcotics here. He is belligerent but leaves.
Sylvie and her mother wait for two hours. Sylvie’s Mama rolls her eyes at a badly behaved boy. When they are finally called in, Mama explains Johnny’s behavior and how she knows something is wrong. Sylvie is uncomfortable that the doctor does not seem to be really listening to the Native woman before him, so she turns to help occupy Johnny.
The doctor tells Mama that getting a diagnosis for a learning disability is not a magic wand and that there will be a lot of work involved. Mama blushes, and he says bluntly that it will be better when he starts school and a teacher can bring it up. She tells him the school will not have the time or money. His only response is to remind her that he knows she is at the Galloway shelter, and it is difficult enough for her without having to attend all the appointments and deal with phone calls and driving.
Sylvie is annoyed to be missing Native Taco Day at school for this appointment; she thinks about it the whole way home.
The next morning, Sylvie is back at school. She tries not to bump into any kids or anything else, remembering her mother’s words that she should not ever have to go to the meddling school counselor, Mrs. Rhodes, for “acting stupid.” Before you know it, Mama says, “you walk out of there a ward of the state” (25).
Sylvie’s new morning ritual is to get to class before everyone else so she can hang up her coat and backpack and race to her desk; she does not want anyone to see she is wearing the same corduroys as yesterday. She does have three sets of clothes and her Mama always tries to keep them clean, but it is hard with the shared washing machine that is often broken.
One day, Sylvie’s Mama has an emergency. Sylvie can tell something is really wrong, and she is sent to stay with Mr. George down the hall. Mr. George is nice even though he has a hole in his throat from smoking. When Mama returns, she says something about an emergency room. Sylvie and Johnny are put to bed, but Sylvie watches Mama return later with Michelle, the shelter supervisor, and Dad.
Dad is clearly injured, his neck in a brace and his body in considerable pain. Sylvie later learns he was rushing in his big rig and fell asleep at the wheel. Michelle and Mama set him down on the couch. Michelle wonders aloud if she can get Mrs. Abdul to switch suites with them so Dad does not have to deal with the long way to their space, but Mama knows she won’t.
Michelle promises to try to figure something out and kindly tells Mama she is a good wife and mother. Mama melts at this and tries to feed Dad. It is not easy and she shouts at him. He is used to her shouting because he always comes back home, chagrined, after his gambling benders.
Daily Report
Hina’s daily reports include the names of the parents/guardians and their associated children, as well as her notes regarding the day. In this one, she writes about how some parents, not quite knowing what this space is, seem to think this is a daycare, or a drop-off space for their kids‑not a place to play with them. She tries to stand by the door and greet everyone. She asks if it is possible to get brochures in other languages. It is clear, though, that the center has food, and the parents like that.
She details popular activities for the day and mentions a few people. One of them is Marie, who has a boy named Johnny who might have learning disabilities. She hopes to be able to have time to talk to Marie.
There is also Bing, a very smart boy who attends the center before class. Hina lets him look at the special cabinet of toys if he cleans up.
At the end of every report, Hina requests weekly supplies.
Bing
Bing is at the nail salon with his Ma, Edna, who works there. He helps clean up a bottle of spilled acetone. He would rather be there than doing his boring homework, which is way too easy for him. He likes to listen to the Vietnamese women who work there talk (he and Ma are Filipino).
Ma finishes up the white lady’s feet she is working on; she tells Bing after she leaves that one can’t spend too long massaging white people’s feet because they have bad energy and that energy goes into your own body.
Ma asks to see the assignment from Mrs. Finnegan’s class where Bing was supposed to draw a picture of what he wants to be when he grows up. Ma is confused; Bing drew a saint. She sighs that a saint is not a job, or at least until someone is dead.
Their ritual at night for Bing's bedtime is Ma rubs his head and hair, which feels good, and prays for him.
Bing remembers one night when he woke to his mother screaming. She was packing feverishly and was barely intelligible. Bing did not know what was happening but she told him they had to go, that it was no longer safe there. It was clear to Bing that they were leaving Daddy. There was no time, Ma sobbed, so Bing just had to grab his jacket.
A knock sounded; it was Tita Mae, who was Ma’s first friend when they moved to Canada. She was going to drive them from Moss Park to Scarborough to keep them safe. Tita Mae clucked that even if Daddy came home, he’d have to get through her first. Ma was ready to go, and Tita Mae helped Bing put on his jacket. Somehow he could tell that she had done this herself and/or helped others do it before.
Bing sat in Tita Mae’s car and looked out the window as they drove away. Tita Mae told Ma that she could work at the nail salon with her and stay with her until they found a place. Bing listened. He did not yet tell his Ma that his Daddy put his hand under hot water until it burned, or yelled at him to hide because he was fat and ugly. His Daddy had changed, and he would tell his Ma later when she began to doubt why she had left him.
Cory
Cory is at work at the RV park when he is called off the assembly line and told he has a phone call. When he picks it up, a voice says “I left her in the bowling alley” (41). Cory realizes exactly what this means, and runs as fast as he can to his car, drives to the bowling alley, and finds his young daughter Laura sitting still and quiet with plastic bags.
The elderly Asian lady who is waiting with her is visibly annoyed with Cory and begins to tell him his wife left the child there and they can’t do that. Cory is mad and responds that the woman is not his wife. In his head, he calls the woman a racial slur.
He takes Laura to the car and blasts hot air on her to warm her up. She is his princess and he tells her how much he loves her and that they are going to Timmy Ho’s for hot chocolate. Laura falls asleep quickly. Cory thinks he has to get a kid’s seat.
When he gets home he rides the elevator up with Edna and “her fat son” (43), the woman as always averting eye contact with him. On his floor TVs blared in rooms, “each household like an escape, like a babysitter in a box” (44).
Cory takes off work the next day to get Laura registered for school, pumping himself up as he undertakes simple tasks of feeding her and getting her ready. He is impatient with himself and Laura, but they make it to Rouge Hill. He brings Laura to the school office, where Mrs. Crosby, a Black woman, asks him to fill out some things. Cory silently judges her attire for being too loud, thinking that Black people always want to be seen. Her questions also annoy him, like she is so high and mighty when she asks about his ID and proof of residence.
Mrs. Crosby walks Cory and silent Laura down the hall, saying she will probably be in Mrs. Landau’s class. She mentions the Ontario Reads Literacy Centre and how it has food there. These are the magic words, Cory thinks, for “his purebred white trash instincts cultivated by years of food bank smarts” (47) kick in.
There is a “dark brown woman” (47) with a hijab standing by the door; in Cory’s head, he sneers that she is a “towelhead” (48). He is hesitant to let Laura enter but does. Hina shows Laura the snacks and Laura fills up on Cheerios. She watches the light from Hina’s wristwatch. Cory is aggravated, thinking this woman is judging them for being poor. He sits down and looks at his Prussian Eagle tattoo, remembering the days of shaved heads and beers with the boys.
Hina hands him an information packet on lice and kindly and quietly says Laura will need to have it treated before she comes back to the center. She knows treatment is expensive but olive oil works, and she has a bottle and instructions for him.
Cory snatches it and leaves with Laura. He does what Hina told him with the olive oil. Laura’s head is slick and shiny, but he’ll do anything for a free breakfast.
Daily Report
Hina writes of how happy she is that word of the center is spreading, for she had more kids today. She mentions what kids and parents liked and disliked. Sylvie and Bing, two older kids, seemed to like each other, and she gave them the task of creating their own comic books. Bing’s teacher, Mrs. Finnegan, has asked her to weigh in on if Bing should be assessed for giftedness designation. She thinks he should but will offer her own thoughts soon.
There was a father, Cory, and his daughter, Laura, who came in. Cory seems antisocial, but Hina will work to figure out their situation and help integrate her in with the rest of the kids.
Jane Fulton’s Email
Jane is Hina’s supervisor and responds to Hina’s daily report via email. She first congratulates her on the numbers, but to get them higher suggests she perhaps go into the neighborhood around the center and hang up fliers as advertisements.
She then cautions Hina about using food as the main draw for families. She knows the center is in a low-income area, but there are resources elsewhere for the families. Ontario Reads can provide small snacks but a formal breakfast sends the wrong message; the focus is “to encourage healthy parenting and literacy” (54-55) because the center is not a soup kitchen.
Jane ends by saying that if Hina needs clarification, she can just let her know.
Hina’s Email
Hina responds and thanks her for the feedback. She asks if she would be paid outside her normal hours for putting up fliers, as this is not part of her contract. She explains that she is not giving out a “formal breakfast,” and that food seems sorely needed in this neighborhood. Ending the email, she says she’d love to talk about it further if Jane wants to stop by the center.
Jane’s Email
Jane responds that she’d love to talk about it, which they can do at the main office for Hina’s performance review in November.
She explains that the centers were designed using trial-and-error and “dangling food in front of hungry people is not what draws parents back to your site” (57). It is more about watching the kids play, but she understands Hina’s sentiments.
Before ending with a hearty “cheers” and “good work,” Jane suggests that it won’t take too much time to drop flyers off are a few apartment buildings and the Native Child and Family Services place.
Analysis
Catherine Hernandez’s Scarborough is a deeply moving, human, and relatable work rooted in the author’s own lived experience. The neighborhood is a real place (where Hernandez and her family live), located on the east side of Toronto, the largest city in Canada. It is also an extremely diverse place, with over half the population foreign-born and 60% “visible minorities” (a Canadian sociological/statistical term). Most Canadians associate Scarborough with high levels of poverty and crime, though the latter claim is inaccurate and mostly rooted in prejudicial views of communities of color.
Hernandez wanted to write about a place she knew intimately, and a place where people lived their lives even if those lives usually played out under the radar of society. In an interview with Hans Rollman, she explained, “Usually when I read [the novel] in other communities I always ask ‘What is your Scarborough?’ And they always have an answer. Every city has an answer. Because of race, because of classism, you have this idea of where all of those people go. Where can those people afford houses? Where do those people go to school? Where do we not want those people? That’s very much what Scarborough is about.”
Hernandez’s characters are people not commonly portrayed in fiction, such as immigrants, nail technicians, shelter residents, assembly-line workers, restaurant owners, and children at poor schools. They take the bus, go to food banks, and struggle to find and keep reliable housing. Their attempts to navigate social systems, like when Marie works to garner a diagnosis of autism for her son Johnny, are characterized by disdain and condescension on the part of the professionals they have to deal with. Hernandez does not shy away from exploring the structural difficulties people in low-income areas, particularly areas in which immigrants and people of color live, experience on a daily basis. Casual racism, homophobia, and misogyny creep into the thoughts of most of the characters—not just the white supremacist Cory. These are flawed people who sometimes do cruel and stupid things, but they are nuanced and deserve our recognition of their humanity.
The structure of Scarborough, with its rotating multitude of voices, many of them children, and usage of different textual formats (e.g., inner monologue, email, letter) gives the novel texture and depth, and illuminates the beautiful, messy, vibrant, complex, and sometimes contentious nature of a diverse urban neighborhood. We have narrators who are white, Black, Native, Filipino; narrators who are children and adults; narrators who are gay and straight; narrators who are professionals and who are working-class. There is no one story in Scarborough the place, so there is no one narrator in Scarborough the novel.
If there is a nexus around which the characters and plot of the novel (loosely) orbit, it is the Ontario Reads Literacy Centre, newly run by Hina Hassani, which is located in Rouge Hill Public School. The three central child characters—Bing, Sylvie, and Laura—attend the school and the center and form relationships with Hina. The school and the center are places where the children learn to navigate relationships with each other and with themselves. The center in particular is about more than just literacy: it acts as a site for the children to have their needs, both emotional and basic, met when society cannot, or will not, do so.
