Erin Steel, talks to Toronto writer Sandra McTavish, about the US Board on Books for Young People (USBBY), Joint Winner “The Cricket War” that she co-wrote with Tho Pham (Kids Can Press, 2024).
This new episode of the AW Live podcast can be found here.
The Cricket War is a semi-biographical novel based on Tho Pham’s experience fleeing Communist Vietnam when he was 12 years old in the 1980s and his experience in a refugee camp.
Highlights from the Podcast:
“While the novel is a fictional novel, it is based on real events, particularly focused on his (Tho) journey from Vietnam to Canada when he was aged 12. On that journey, he encountered pirates, ended up being on a German tanker, was in a refugee camp in Palawan, the Philippines.”
“On a deeper level, it’s really about freedom. The length that some people will go to have the freedom that many of us in North America just take for granted. And the fact that people are willing to risk their lives and the lives of their family members to have that freedom that we wake up in the morning here in Canada and have. And we have it everyday, and assume we have it.”
“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of boys who stop reading around the age of 10 to 14, and these boys were in my head. That’s why we started the way we started with The Cricket War – cricket fighting to engage boys.”
“I’ve had many adults reading this novel. There’s lots of multi-layers. There are a lot of themes that are quite mature. Although I know it’s being studied in a TDSB (Toronto District School Board) school with some grade 5 students and in a high school right now in a book club with some ELL students.”
Author
Sandra McTavish works in educational publishing. She and her partner, Doug, divide their time between Toronto and Doug’s family farm in Madoc, Ontario, where they have a few “pet” cows and barn cats.
Tho Pham left Vietnam alone at the age of twelve, joining tens of thousands of refugees on boats and ships. He was eventually adopted by a Canadian elementary school teacher. Tho lives in Ottawa, Ontario, with his family. He chose not to provide an author photo or participate in the interview because it was a traumatic experience and he fears retaliation from the Vietnamese government.
Sandra McTavish is representing their work in the interview.