Armstrong & Charlie

Armstrong & Charlie

Steven Frank

HMH, 2017

298 pages

Grades 4-8

Historical Fiction

Multiple points of view tell the story of a small group of inner-city Los Angeles sixth graders busing to an all-white elementary school in Laurel Canyon in the 1970's. Charlie is from a progressive Jewish family who is still mourning the death of his older brother a year ago. Even though many of Charlie's friends have been pulled out of the school because of "the changes", Charlie's parent's feel that is important for him to stay. Armstrong lives in a housing project with too many sisters, a hard working mother, and a disabled veteran father with a missing leg and PTSD. His friendship with an elderly neighbor has helped to keep him on the right path and into a handyman business. At first the boys do not trust or like each other, seeing the other guy as a threat. Eventually, a tentative friendship is born. When some of Charlie's former classmates want him to chose between loyalties, he is faced with a tough choice. Can two very different boys from completely different socioeconomic backgrounds find enough in common to become friends? And will the greater world allow the friendship?

An important book written a few years back, set over forty years ago, that still speaks to our present society. It is an excellent choice that I somehow missed when it came out. Set in the 1970's in hippy California, it is clearly part of it's place and time, yet relevant to today's cultural climate. A lot is happening in this story. Charlie's family is recovering from the death of his brother. Armstrong's father is clearly battling PTSD and the family lives in poverty. The elderly neighbor/mentor passes away within the pages of the book, giving Armstrong something in common with his new friend. In fact, the boys discover that they have as much in common as different, a realization that they must share with their suspicious parents. Charlie discovers first love and there is some spin-the-bottle action, but it all remains fairly innocent. Charlie must face moral dilemmas as prejudice stares him right in the face and sometimes the answers are not that easy. The adult figures are prominent in the lives of these children and are both supportive and realistically flawed, yet demonstrate the willingness to walk on the roads with these kids and figure it all out together. All of the characters experience growth and a big graduation scene at the end of the story brings a happy, yet not unrealistically perfect, resolution. This would be a great choice for school use and book discussion. A story set in the past with problems we are still trying to figure out in the present.