Tangerine (novel)

Tangerine is a young adult novel by Edward Bloor, published in 1997.

Plot summary

The story is based on a seventh grade boy named Paul Fisher who is constantly bullied and even assaulted by his older brother Erik. Throughout the story, it is mentioned that he is legally blind. His parents' explanation of his blindness is that he stared at a solar eclipse when he was five years old, which caused his blindness. Throughout this novel, Paul deals with living in a new state, new schools, and ultimately learns secrets about his family. In addition, he learns that people are different on the outside than they are on the inside. In the newest edition of the book it talks about what Erik told Paul happened to his eyes. The story begins with Paul's family on move-in day to their new home. When the family arrives in Tangerine, they realize that the location of the house is a drawback due to the constant thunderstorms, termite infested base, and muck fires. Because of this, Paul's mom is angry that Paul's dad has overlooked many things before moving. After they unpack, Paul goes for a tour of his new school, Lake Windsor Middle School. Paul and his mother are greatly distressed at the school's appearance since 7th and 8th graders have classes in small wooden portables connected by wooden walkways. He does not mind the appearence of the school; he is annoyed with his mother for filing an IEP. Later on in the story, Mike Costello, another football player on Erik's team, is introduced into the story after Paul plays a game of soccer with Mike's younger brother, Joey Costello.

After the first day of school, Paul goes to practice with Lake Windsor's soccer team, the Seagulls. However, the coach kicks Paul off the team because of the IEP form his mother filed for him because of his blindness. If a handicapped player (I.E; one with an IEP form) plays on a school sports team, the manager of that team will have to pay insurance if the player in question is harmed.

The next day, Erik tells his family that Mike Costello was struck and killed by lightning at practice when he was leaning on the football field's goalpost. Erik and his friend Arthur Bauer are happy of the incidence, and laugh and make fun of Mike, stating "he got mohawked". Only Paul knows how Erik and Arthur really feel about Mike Costello, whilst his mother and father are oblivious to Erik's unruliness as usual.

While Paul is at his school, a sinkhole opens, swallowing up the entire middle school campus, and condemning everything within a 100-foot radius. This is the fault of the old building manager for Tangerine County, Charley Burns, who dies of a heart attack shortly after the sinkhole incident occurs. Paul's father is then named as his replacement. After the sinkhole madness dies down, the principal announces that there will be a split-shift schedule, so Paul's parent's, after much pleading from Paul, send him to Tangerine Middle school (fortunately, without the IEP). Now, Paul can finally play soccer again.

At Tangerine Middle School, Paul meets fellow students Theresa Cruz as she guides him around, Victor, Tino (Theresa's twin brother), and Henry D. They are all the school's soccer players except Theresa. Paul also convinces Joey to transfer to his school with him. Paul plays his first soccer game with is new school and they win. Joey tells Paul that he has the same schedule as Paul as in the same school. Joey eventually gets sick of the new school, because he thinks none of Paul's new friends likes him, and he thinks that Paul is "kissing up" to Victor and their other classmates. Joey finally goes back to Lake Windsor Middle School and drops out of the Tangerine soccer team and the school enrollment, leaving Paul stunned by his decision to quit.

Robberies begin to take place around the neighborhood during the "tenting" process of the houses (covering the house with a tent and using poison gas to fill the house to kill the termites). The robbers break in through the windows. Paul then meets Luis Cruz, the older brother of Theresa and Tino. Luis works in his tangerine farm field. He has developed a new kind of tangerine called the Golden Dawn. Later, Paul and his friends from Tangerine Middle School are playing soccer in front of their house, when Erik comes over and starts mouthing off at Tino, he mentions the time Erik flipped on his back when Antoine Thomas made a fake field goal. Erik gets angry and slaps Tino in the face extremely hard with his varsity ring, and Tino begins to bleed. Paul does not mention the incident to his mother, who inquires, "Is there anything Erik did that I should know?". Later, Luis goes up to Erik to defend his brother, Tino, and says, "You would smack a little kid in the face, right? Why don't you try to smack me?", and Erik instructs his friend Arthur to hit Luis with his blackjack. Luis is fine after the smack, but a bruise is left on his head. Six days later, Luis is found dead from an aneurysm and Paul suspects Erik's involvement. He also suspects his father to know about the incident with Erik and Tino.

At the senior awards night, when Erik is getting his award, Tino and Victor show up and beat up Erik and Arthur for killing Luis Cruz. This causes the audience to go into an uproar, with the rest of the football players tried to keep control. Paul himself also jumps on one of the coaches to save Tino from the coach's grab. The two of them escape, and Paul runs back to the grey wall in his. Erik confronts him with Arthur. He finally has the courage to speak up to Erik and states that he knew that Erik and Arthur were responsible for Luis Cruz' death. Erik then gets angry and denies it himself, swinging the bat he brought with him from Arthur's Land Cruiser. Arthur, who is terrified that their secret is known, then tries to calm Erik down, but Erik shouts "Shut up, Castor!" before leaving in Arthur's Land Cruiser. The word "Castor" triggers Paul's memories, and he has a flashback from his childhood to the day his vision got damaged. He realizes that the real reason for his near-blindness is because Erik, along with his old friend from Huntsville (Vincent Castor), sprayed white spray paint into his eyes; due to the fact Castor believed Paul had gotten him into trouble. (For spray painting a message with Erik on a wall when they were in the fifth grade.) Paul also realizes his parents have been hiding the truth from him; (they told him he stared at an eclipse until he blinded himself). Paul then confronts his parents about the incident, who admit to remembering the event, they lied to him to prevent Paul from hating his brother. He then leaves them in the kitchen, sobbing.

After that, mysteries start to unravel: Paul's mom finds a gym bag, and in it are all the stolen items from the neighborhood and a gas mask. Erik confesses to robbery, along with Arthur. Police also arrest Arthur for the murder of Luis. The Sheriff orders Paul's parents to keep Erik inside the house no matter what. Paul is also expelled from school for the rest of the academic year because he jumped on the coach during the awards ceremony. His mother decides to take him to a Catholic school, St. Anthony's. Paul and Tino talk on the phone later and Paul tells him about how he got kicked out for the rest of the year. They talk about St. Anthony's and Tino tells Paul that he can come help out at the groves anytime. Paul will return to Tangerine Middle (school of Tino) after the school year ends. The story ends with Paul's dad driving him to St. Anthony's, seeing a grove of citrus trees and rolling the window down, smelling the air that is filled with the scent of the Golden Dawn.

Reviews

Boston Globe included it in a shortlist of books recommended to help children cope with the uncertainty of moving house.^[1]

References