Tilt
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: March 1, 2017 6:13 PM | Last Updated: March 2, 2017
Alan Cumyn
The only thing Stan wants is to make his high school basketball team until he meets Janine. Janine is a distraction from Stan's crazy home life with his distant mother, her difficult boyfriend and his hell-raising little sister. But she's also a distraction from everything else and just when Stan gets it all under control, his dad shows up. Tilt is a powerful story about figuring out what you want and what you can change.
Tilt is for readers ages 12 and up.
From the book
The new girl came upon him unexpectedly. He was alone in the dark parking lot behind the auto-glass shop where nobody went at night except for him. It was hard to explain what he was doing. He was developing a twisting kick that involved heaving himself into the air with a broom handle. The kick part was coming along, but the landing needed work.
He was picking little asphalt bits out of his knee when she happened by.
"Hey," she said, not the least bit startled. Perhaps she hadn't seen the kick. Still, he was a male in a shadowy back alley developing his own secret martial art, and many girls would have been frightened out of their boots.
She wasn't wearing boots. She was wearing flip-flops that went thwack thwack with every step, and a pair of ordinary jeans and a light windbreaker. She was taller than him and big-shouldered. Her hair stood up at odd angles as if she hadn't slept in forty-eight hours and had then been electrocuted. It was red tonight, as far as he could see.
Janine. Janine Igwash.
From Tilt by Alan Cumyn ©2011. Published by Groundwood Books.