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Kicking the Sky Hardcover | Pages: 336 pages

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Title	:	Kicking the Sky
Author	:	Anthony De Sa
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 336 pages
Published	:	September 10th 2013 by Doubleday Canada (first published February 12th 2013)
Categories	:	Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. Cultural. Canada. Young Adult. Coming Of Age

Commentary To Books Kicking the Sky

On a steamy summer day in 1977, Emanuel Jaques was shining shoes in downtown Toronto. Surrounded by the strip clubs, bars and body rub parlors of Yonge Street, Emanuel was lured away from his friends by a man who promised some easy money. Four days later the boy's body was discovered. He had been brutally raped and murdered, and Toronto the Good would never be the same. The murder of the Shoeshine Boy had particularly tragic resonance for the city's Portuguese community. The loss of one of their own symbolized for many how far they were from realizing their immigrant dreams.

Kicking the Sky is told from the perspective of one of these children, Antonio Rebelo, a character first introduced in Barnacle Love. Twelve-year-old Antonio prizes his life of freedom and adventure. He and his best friends, Manny and Ricky, spend their days on their bikes exploring the labyrinth of laneways that link their Portuguese neighborhood to the rest of the city. But as the details of Emanuel's death expose Toronto's seedier underbelly, the boys are pulled into an adult world of danger and cruelty, secrets and lies much closer to home.

Kicking the Sky is a novel driven by dramatic events, taking hold of readers from its opening pages, intensifying its force towards an ending of huge emotional impact.

Point Books In Favor Of Kicking the Sky

ISBN:	0385664389 (ISBN13: 9780385664387)
Edition Language:	English
Setting:	Toronto, Ontario(Canada)

Rating Out Of Books Kicking the Sky

Ratings: 3.55 From 548 Users | 115 Reviews

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Based on the real-life murder of a 12-year old boy from Toronto's Portuguese immigrant community, this 1977 coming of age story is immersive, if a bit melodramatic. The characters, family dynamics, and locale are all clearly autobiographical to an extent, which is what gives the story such a rich tone and depth of feeling. Eleven-year-old narrator Antonio is at the age where his world is just starting to extend beyond his immediate neighborhood, with all the excitement and danger that means. I

Actual Rating: 4.5*This was one of those stories that grew for me the further it travelled along. Antonio, the 11yo protagonist, was a great character, watching as the world around him became darker due to a heinous crime committed not that far away. His community reacted in different ways, but mostly trying to shelter him and the other children in cocoons. But, being children, they had their own little worlds they didn't want to give up. I loved the relationships in this book between all the

The complexities of a good coming-of-age novel is what makes literature so enjoyable to read. When a writer combines what their protagonist is: feeling, seeing, hearing and trying to understand into a well-crafted collection of words, then an element of the human condition is described to the world and the world learns a bit more about itself. And that is exactly what Anthony De Sa has done in his novel Kicking the Sky.Link to my complete review

I thought Barnacle Love was good, but this book is horrible. The author admits that he thought the Jaques murder was cool and hip at the time it happened and this book reads as childish, narcissistic fantasies complete with some modern hot topic buttons such as anti-Church, gay rights movement, pity the child murderer and even pro choice sentiments. The Portuguese community is represented as some ignorant, religious fanatics that just hopped of the banana boat at the turn of the century instead

Although this book is set in a time of unrest and crime (Toronto in the late 70's, in a Summer when a young boy is lured from the streets and murdered), I thoroughly enjoyed this book - from beginning to end.I'm not sure if it helped that I was a teenager, growing up in (what is now) the northern edge of Toronto; or that I lived in the area of Toronto in which the story is set, when I was older; however, I simply loved it. The references (Kids Day at the CNE) brought back fond memories, and in

I am a friend and fan of the author. I find his take on the world endlessly interesting and I admire him as a writer. This review is unabashedly biased. Set in 1977, the novel takes place around the murder of Emanuel Jaques, a boy who was shining shoes in downtown Toronto when he was lured away. The crime serves as the back drop, but the story centers around Antonio, who we follow as he struggles to make sense of the world beyond the alleys of his west Toronto home (he travels on a banana-seat

What a weird, lurid book. I was initially drawn the author's rendering of an immigrant community in Toronto in the late 70s, but somewhere along the way, I (and maybe the author) lost the plot... Between depicting the VERY early teen homosexual encounters, glory holes, and sexual commerce while portraying the Portuguese family life I was consistently confused about the tone of the book, the main character, and most of the other players. I finally gave up almost at the end, when I just couldn't