To and Fro

For as long as Sam can remember, it’s just been him, his mum, and his dog Trevor – and Sam is ok with that. He’s fine being the weird White kid with hair that makes him look taller than he is. Then his mum brings his dad back into his life. Lebone, his dad, is a complete stranger to Sam, and though he has always known his dad was Black, meeting him for the first time has unlocked some very complicated feelings. Is he a White kid with a Black dad, a Black kid with a White mum, or both? Or something else? And how can he be seen as anything other than White when he has white skin?

These events all coincide with a ‘Who Am I and Where Do I Come From?’ assignment and school concert, which means Sam feels a deadline to decide and declare who he is. And with his dad back in South Africa, and therefore not able to guide him, his nanna still coming to terms with having a Black man in her family, and his teacher being the kind of person who gets visibly excited about his First Nations classmate ‘showing off her culture’, Sam is struggling.

To and Fro is full of very real family relationships. Sam is a 12-year-old boy: he’s at that stage in his life when everything is embarrassing, especially his mum, and on occasion even his own body lets him down with its timing. There’s a lot of humour in this novel, which helps to balance out the more serious inner turmoil, and some of the harder lessons that Sam learns as he clumsily tries to find ways to express who he is. To and Fro is a great book for readers 11+ who like stories grounded in reality and a good laugh.