Waiting for the Rain

Waiting for the Rain

by Sheila Gordon

Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers

1987

This young adolescent novel explores the issues of Apartheid in South Africa post America's Civil Rights Movement.  It tells the story of friendship between two boys--Tengo who is black and Frikkie who is white--and how growing up changes everything.  The differences in lifestyle are made apparent through the descriptions of differences in houses, dinners, and labor.  Tensions grow as the boys reach adolescence, and Tengo becomes more aware of the disparity in their situations--a young girl calls his tribal leader "boy" and orders him to clean up a broken plate; he is given a tin cup and plate for an outdoor lunch of tea and small bread slice while Frikki eats a stomach-filling lunch inside on painted china.  Ironically, Frikki, who dreads every minute he is in school and longs to work on the farm has free access to education, while Tengo, who longs to find answers to his questions of science and history, has few books (much less school) available to him.  A clear theme in this story is that education is power, and the black school children begin to fight for the right for equal education.

The author is from Johannesburg in South Africa and writes with the authority of having observed these experiences.  That said, the novel portrays a stiffness that would indicate she was primarily an observer and not intimately connected or involved in the violence that took place within the story.  Furthermore, the limited third-person narration that focuses on one character for a length of time but then hops to another character for brief glimpses can be a confusing writing style for some readers.  Overall, this would be a good novel for children to explore the unfamiliar topic of Apartheid in South Africa, but additional background information might be necessary.