KATY OF SKY ROAD by Dianne Case and Yvonne Hart
(Maskew Miller Longman, R74,95)
As a book aimed at the youth, Katy of Sky Road hits the nail on the head.
Katy is a 15-year-old living in the Cape Flats with her father, Hector, and her Aunt Rosie. When Katy was five her mother died, but she does not know the circumstances. Her two close friends, Melissa and Zekie, both smoke cigarettes and, in Zekie’s case, also chrystal meth. Zekie coughs a lot, but they believe it is just because he smokes too many cigarettes.
Katy’s father is very protective, as, among other things, he is scared that she might start abusing drugs. Sometimes Katy thinks he is over-protective.
Katy is a ballroom dancer, as her mother was. Wesley, her dancing partner and a school prefect, has a crush on her and when she joins Ricardo, the new boy at school, in hip-hop dancing, he is very jealous. Katy enjoys the dancing and decides that hip-hop is more suited to her, as she feels that she is “dancing on her mother’s grave” by doing ballroom.
When Ricardo asks Katy to be his partner in a competition she is elated. She promises she will attend practise with him. But how will she get around her father? She starts lying to him because she knows that he will not give his consent. Ricardo tells her that she should be honest but, although she feels very bad about lying, she is too afraid of her father.
One day, while Katy is trying to hide the outfit she bought for the competition, she finds a bundle of letters that her mother wrote to Hector before she died. She reads the letters and discovers the truth about why her mother died.
Meanwhile, Zekie becomes very ill and Hector begins to suspect that he smokes chrystal meth. He starts coughing up blood and is admitted to hospital. Chrystal meth is a very big problem in Katy’s community – it is even sold at her school and, as Katy herself says, is “as easily available as bubblegum”.
Hector finds out about Katy practising hip-hop dancing with Ricardo and they have a huge row. Katy is grounded and is not allowed to go out with her friends. Then Katy ends up in a difficult situation, which casts her old dancing partner Wesley in a different light.
Written in the first person, Katy of Sky Road gives one an understanding of the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol. It also portrays some of the difficulties teenagers can experience in their relationships with parents, friends and family in an environment that many South African children can identify with.
Nevertheless, Katy of Sky Road is mostly fun to read, and keeps one’s attention. The book includes summaries, activities for learners and information on various drug-related helplines.
Daniel Opperman is a grade eight learner at the Deutsche Internationale Schule Johannesburg.
Katy of Sky Road was the winner in the English category in Maskew Miller Longman’s youth novel awards in 2007