A Phoenix Honor Award Book
Young Tommy is seeing Angel Square through new eyes since his best friend's father was beaten up just because he's Jewish. Brian Doyle brings his award-winning blend of humor and wisdom to bear in this mystery that confronts the issue of racial hatred.
It's 1945 and Tommy lives in the tough multi-ethnic neighborhood of Lowertown, Ottawa, where someone who hates Jewish people has attacked his best friend's father. Adopting the persona of his favorite radio hero, Tommy, aka. "The Shadow," teams up with friends "Killer" Bodnoff and CoCo Laframboise to find out who did it, but soon realizes that the quest will lead them straight to Angel Square - a fearsome battleground where Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish kids fight each other daily. Still, if Tommy can find the culprit, he's convinced Mr. Rosenberg will recover and his pal Sammy will return from the faraway town where his dad is hospitalized. And could it be that, in the process, Tommy will also manage to impress the girl of his dreams, Margot Lane? In the course of his search, Tommy learns about the forces that divide communities, as well as those that unite them.
