cover image Gaff

Gaff

Shan Correa. Peachtree, $15.95 (212pp) ISBN 978-1-56145-526-3

Set in Hawaii and thick with pidgin dialogue, Correa’s memorable debut explores the world of cockfighting. Two years after a lumberyard accident injured his father, Paul’s family makes a living caring for 200 gamecocks. Paul loves the roosters, but at 12 years old he hasn’t had to think about the cruelty involved in the illegal fights for which many of them are raised and sold. His best friend Sal’s grandfather, among others, views cockfighting as an important tradition (“da birds dance, move like music, use wing, curve neck. Dance, dance”), but when Paul is dragged to a fight by Sal’s older brother, it leaves him feeling sick and disturbed (“I think, in the middle of the cockfight, I was smelling how war must smell”). Paul begins to understand why his mother, his sister, and his crush, Honey, have always been against the sport, and becomes motivated to look for another source of income for his family. Through Paul’s sensitive eyes, the novel provides a hard-hitting but never gratuitous view of the brutal reality of cockfighting that’s contextualized by ethics and customs. Ages 8–12. (Apr.)