Boy O'Boy By Brian Doyle - Goodreads
Jump to ratings and reviews
Want to readKindle $6.60Rate this book
Fergus, Quondam Happy Face1,204 reviews17.7k followersAugust 10, 2024If kids grew up absurd in the sixties, they grew up largely unnoticed, unheeded and unrespected right after the War. A favourite dictum of parents hardened by WWII was ‘kids should be seen and not heard!’Or at least, just unheard. Dr. Benjamin Spock had yet to utter a word on childrearing in those years, and affluence was conspicuous by its absence, so go figure. A rough-and-Tumble childhood for all of us babyboomer brats. But that wasn’t so bad!We had plenty of days of freedom. And strangers rarely poked their heads into our own quiet postwar domain, peopled only by the flora and fauna of our safe refuge from early fifties urban sprawl - for a while!Freedom was a favour too-generously extended to us young rascals.Martin O’Boy is a little guy - a Tweenie - who is largely left to himself in the Canadian URBAN jungle, to fend for himself and to be instructed at the School of Hard Knocks. The story is anything but unhappy, though - at least until the shadow of the facts of adult life cramp his style.Boy O’Boy lives in the area where our current dentist works - an incredibly lengthy trip into the city for us earlier, but now a snap with LRT.A low-rise area with slowly encroaching gentrification now, but back then a place of ill repute...Boy doesn’t mind much. For him the whole city’s his oyster. Until the day of his too-sudden growing up.It’s a story about a somewhat pleasant few months spent in the buoyant mind of a mid-forties preteen. A glimpse into a free-wheeling life those born after 1960 will not remember.He lives in the poor section of Ottawa, Canada’s capital. His tough friends rag him by giving him the sobriquet Boy O’Boy. He sneaks into the infamous Rialto Theatre (40’s & 50’s kids called it the rat hole) through the back door.But he is confused by the much more advanced tricks of adults! He is frustrated, for example, in his inability to exchange a hard-won pair of new shoes with a smooth-talking salesman. EVERYONE pinched pennies back then in the post war Recession.It’s a lot like Hollywood movies of the time - filled with shysters and crooks at every corner, played on the screen by the cream of character actors. Individual quirks and foibles hadn’t been so carefully cleansed out of the the social fabric in those days!But you paid your money and you took your chances....In a word, life was more real back then, though not played out at anything near our current frantic rate. And kids weren’t self-conscious like nowadays. The world went on forever in their minds.But then Boy O’Boy gets a foul taste of adult intimacy. What does his touchy-feely choirmaster want from him, anyway?But help is on the way!This is a warm, kids-eye-view, award-winning YA book from Ottawa native Brian Doyle, who must have been a Boy O’ Boy himself.For Doyle has such crystal-clear memories of growing up in the Forties near the Byward Market.For us Canadian seniors it’s a trip down memory lane.But for all starry-eyed tweens and teens of today it carries a grim warning: 'cave lingua dulce!' For the memories, Brian, and for your vivid wide-awake writing from a kid’s-eye-view: A solid four stars!
Amy Mathers393 reviews26 followersApril 11, 2014http://amysmarathonofbooks.ca/boy-oboy/
Want to readKindle $6.60Rate this bookMartin O'Boy #1
Boy O'BoyBrian Doyle
3.22Want to readKindle $6.60Rate this bookWinner of the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year, the Geoffrey Bilson Award, the Ruth Schwartz Award, and an ALA Notable Books List selectionMartin O'Boy's life is not easy. His beloved Granny has just died, his pregnant mother and father fight all the time and his twin, Phil, is completely incapacitated. Martin is the one his mother counts on.But life in Ottawa's Lowertown is not all bad. He has his best friend, Billy Batson (a.k.a. Captain Marvel), the movies, his cat Cheap and there's the glamorous Buz from next door, who is off at the war.As the war comes to an end with the bombing of Hiroshima -- on Martin's birthday -- Ottawa is in a state of turmoil. Returning soldiers, parties, fights and drunks fill the streets.It would all be very exciting, except for one thing. In their endless pursuit of more funds Martin and Billy have joined the church choir -- as summer boys. And the organist, Mr. T.D.S. George, is awfully fond of Martin. But Martin, despite his hardships, has a pure soul and his Granny's love, Billy's friendship, Buz's imminent return, and even his mother's reliance on him, which help him to deliver a kind of justice to Mr. George, and to heal himself and others.- GenresCanadaYoung AdultFictionAbuse
162 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
Book details & editionsLoading interface...Loading interface...About the author
Brian Doyle
68 books2 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.My very first piece of writing I published myself. I wrote in block letters, on the playground of Angelesca Square after a fresh snow fall, huge letters that airplanes could see, these words: MY BEST FRIEND GERALD IS A BASTARD.For some reason (it was 1942) I wanted the Germans, who were coming any minute now to drop bombs on us, to know about Gerald. I'd overheard my parents talking sadly about Gerald being illegitimate and how sorry they felt. I thought if the Germans knew about Gerald and his problem and that he was my best friend they'd turn around and go home and not drop their bombs on us, here in Lowertown, Ottawa, Canada.Of course, they never arrived (such was the power of radio those days) but they were the intended audience of my first sentence. First published sentence.To communicate in clear, written sentences has been my vocation ever since.In the middle of a teaching career I began dabbling in the genre of youthful narration in the tradition of Twain's Huck Finn. At the same time, I met the flower of the flock, the estimable, the eximious, the nonpareil editor and publisher, Patsy Aldana of Groundwood Books.Together we have produced a dozen books and we're still cooking. The books are set in the Gatineau river valley and Ottawa. They are funny and sad! They are read by people of all ages though the narrators are young. The narrators are the age of the child who saw the Emperor's nakedness. They are clear eyed, candid, smart, unsophisticated and inexperienced.The books have multiple layers, resulting in reluctant readers discovering them while elsewhere they are studied in university courses.They have been translated in seven different languages and have been awarded national and international prizes too numerous to list here. They have been adapted to radio, stage and film. I have appeared in twenty performances of our book Angel Square on the stage of the National Arts Centre.There has also been an opera and there's talk of a ballet. I have rinsed out my long-sleeved leotard and am waiting by the phone for the audition call.I spend a lot of time at my cabin in the Gatineau Hills, sometimes with my four grandchildren and their parents, keeping in touch with the trees and the river and the rocks and keeping my ears and eyes open for those Luftwaffe bombers.Ratings & Reviews
What do you think?Rate this bookWrite a ReviewFriends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!Community Reviews
3.225 stars6 (14%)4 stars11 (26%)3 stars14 (34%)2 stars6 (14%)1 star4 (9%)Search review textFiltersDisplaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviewsFergus, Quondam Happy Face1,204 reviews17.7k followersAugust 10, 2024If kids grew up absurd in the sixties, they grew up largely unnoticed, unheeded and unrespected right after the War. A favourite dictum of parents hardened by WWII was ‘kids should be seen and not heard!’Or at least, just unheard. Dr. Benjamin Spock had yet to utter a word on childrearing in those years, and affluence was conspicuous by its absence, so go figure. A rough-and-Tumble childhood for all of us babyboomer brats. But that wasn’t so bad!We had plenty of days of freedom. And strangers rarely poked their heads into our own quiet postwar domain, peopled only by the flora and fauna of our safe refuge from early fifties urban sprawl - for a while!Freedom was a favour too-generously extended to us young rascals.Martin O’Boy is a little guy - a Tweenie - who is largely left to himself in the Canadian URBAN jungle, to fend for himself and to be instructed at the School of Hard Knocks. The story is anything but unhappy, though - at least until the shadow of the facts of adult life cramp his style.Boy O’Boy lives in the area where our current dentist works - an incredibly lengthy trip into the city for us earlier, but now a snap with LRT.A low-rise area with slowly encroaching gentrification now, but back then a place of ill repute...Boy doesn’t mind much. For him the whole city’s his oyster. Until the day of his too-sudden growing up.It’s a story about a somewhat pleasant few months spent in the buoyant mind of a mid-forties preteen. A glimpse into a free-wheeling life those born after 1960 will not remember.He lives in the poor section of Ottawa, Canada’s capital. His tough friends rag him by giving him the sobriquet Boy O’Boy. He sneaks into the infamous Rialto Theatre (40’s & 50’s kids called it the rat hole) through the back door.But he is confused by the much more advanced tricks of adults! He is frustrated, for example, in his inability to exchange a hard-won pair of new shoes with a smooth-talking salesman. EVERYONE pinched pennies back then in the post war Recession.It’s a lot like Hollywood movies of the time - filled with shysters and crooks at every corner, played on the screen by the cream of character actors. Individual quirks and foibles hadn’t been so carefully cleansed out of the the social fabric in those days!But you paid your money and you took your chances....In a word, life was more real back then, though not played out at anything near our current frantic rate. And kids weren’t self-conscious like nowadays. The world went on forever in their minds.But then Boy O’Boy gets a foul taste of adult intimacy. What does his touchy-feely choirmaster want from him, anyway?But help is on the way!This is a warm, kids-eye-view, award-winning YA book from Ottawa native Brian Doyle, who must have been a Boy O’ Boy himself.For Doyle has such crystal-clear memories of growing up in the Forties near the Byward Market.For us Canadian seniors it’s a trip down memory lane.But for all starry-eyed tweens and teens of today it carries a grim warning: 'cave lingua dulce!' For the memories, Brian, and for your vivid wide-awake writing from a kid’s-eye-view: A solid four stars!Amy Mathers393 reviews26 followersApril 11, 2014http://amysmarathonofbooks.ca/boy-oboy/- completed-booksmarathon-of-booksquebec
- youth-fiction
Join the discussion
Adda quoteStarta discussion1questionCan't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.Help centerTừ khóa » Boy ơ
-
O'boy (@oboynordic) • Instagram Photos And Videos
-
Boy O'Boy - Wikipedia
-
Baby Boy Names That Start With O - The Bump
-
O-BOY - First Wearable Satellite Rescue Device
-
O'Boy Chocolate Drink 450g (Carton Of 15) - Fresco Market
-
Yvngxchris - O Boy! [Dir. By @DotComNirvan ] - YouTube
-
These Baby Boy Names That Start With O Are Officially Cool - Romper
-
Baby Boy Names That Start With O | BabyCenter
-
Boy Names Ending With "O" - BabyCenter
-
The Boy And The World (2013) - IMDb
-
O Boy! The Hottest Boy Names Ending In O - Nameberry
-
Baby Boy Names That Start With O - What To Expect
-
Baby Boy Names Beginning With O - MadeForMums