Winnipeg Free Press
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-- Kevin Prokosh

Michelle Todd’s memoir is about growing up in Edmonton with a Jamaican father and a Filipino mother. It’s a classic Canadian immigrant’s coming-of-age story affectionately told with humour and energy.

The starting point of the sometimes rambling, hour-long monologue is the discovery that Todd and her white Ukrainian-Anglo boyfriend are having a baby. It ignites Todd’s musing about cultural identity. What if I have to make my son food for ethnic day at school? she wonders. What am I going to make? Deep fried curried perogies?

 

Todd hilariously remembers her father’s cultural confusion about the Edmonton Eskimos football team. He couldn’t understand why anyone would want to play soccer in the snow with the Inuit. Although she recalls her worst racism came from other black girls in high school, she remains upbeat especially in confidently confirming her place in the melting pot. I’m from Edmonton, she boasts. I’ m Canadian.

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