Visual Themes from Shattered

Shattered by Eric Walters

While I have not quite finished my read of Eric Walter's lastest offering on life for teens, I have read enough to know that I like the general story line of the fifteen year old Ian and his encounter with the homeless Sarge, a former Canadian peacekeeper in Rwanda. The friendship that Ian develops with Sarge provides an interesting thread for the reader to find out about Rwanda and the genocide which occurred there. One can only imagine the terrible memories which haunt Sarge. I also like the idea of Ian doing community service as part of a Civics assignment. The dialogue is straight forward and definitely accessible to teen boys. However, I do find that Eric Walters' characters are somewhat too contrived for the sake of the storyline. There is no real characterization. For example, Ian comes from an affluent but disfunctional family, yet his behaviour does not seem to fit his family situation. He comes across as being a little too good to be true. I would have expected him to be more belligerent. Having said this, I do think that most boys will enjoy the storyline, even if it come across as being a bit preachy.

Posted by Chit Chat at 3:12 PM 3 comments