Commendation: Boikie, you better believe it
by Dianne Hofmeyr
Gold: Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature 1994

The judging panel had no problem in deciding on the winner of the Gold Prize. I think I can speak for all three judges when I say that we read the manuscript with the excited feeling that "this is it!" Memorable offbeat characters, in a cosmopolitan and completely natural mixture of race and class; authentic and amusing dialogue; and a colourful central-Johannesburg setting so clearly evoked that it leaps from the page. And, underlying the engagingly-written surface, a strong but subtle argument for tolerance of the other person's point of view.

To a great extent, the characters and their relationships to the narrator, 14-year-old Daniel, ARE the plot. There's his embarrassing father who sees auras and quotes the Bible from a soapbox in Joubert Park; there's his silent and observant friend Kenny; there's Zeida, a sophisticated schoolgirl politician and peacemaker; there's Sarina Rahim, the beautiful but inaccessible girl of Daniel's dreams; and there's Aunt Sissie who runs a hairdressing salon, and who is sometimes Daniel's mother-figure and sometimes - more disconcertingly - a sexy Madonna-clone.

The characters present contrasting ways of "seeing". Daniel uses his lively imagination and ready sense of humour to flesh out the facts - and sometimes tends to transform them into fiction; his father sees a truth that lies deeper than superficial appearances; and silent Kenny takes the time to observe in careful detail what is actually happening in the world around him. Two striking events are vividly described: a Peace March which Zeida helps organise, and a terrorist attack on a pub in which Daniel's father is one of the victims. The attack acts as a catalyst for both Daniel and his uncommunicative friend Kenny. Daniel begins to value and understand his father, and discards

his erotic fantasies about Aunt Sissie; Kenny loses his handicapping stammer when he finds himself with something important to say.

The book is politically topical and, on a personal level, deals with two important adolescent issues - relationships with parents and disturbing sexual feelings - without any suspicion of "writing down". The writing is lively and rich with closely - observed detail, and the reader is given time to savour the delicate - and sometimes indelicate - humor.

The Sanlam Prize entries are, of course, judged anonymously, but from the outset it was clear to the judges that this book was the work of an outstandingly talented writer of young fiction. They were not wrong: as it turns out, she already has a Silver and a Gold Sanlam Prize to her credit.

The 1994 Sanlam Gold Prize for Youth Literature in the English section goes to Dianne Hofmeyr's Boikie, you better believe it.

Dee Nash - convener of the panel of judges for the English Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature 1994