I was thinking about space and place after Friday’s class, and I remembered a book I studied in my undergrad. It’s called What We All Long For by Dionne Brand, and it explores Toronto as a liminal space–one of mixed and changing identities. Here’s a quote about the book from an article in The Canadian Encyclopedia:
“Dionne Brand‘s third novel, What We All Long For (2005), is as much about the city in which it is set as it is about its main characters. Perhaps best known as a poet, Brand uses rich and lyrical language to describe Toronto as her characters move through the cityscape. Toronto is depicted as an “Anglicized” city, built on First Nations land and possessing a multiracial and multicultural population (See also ethnic and race relations). The novel explores this complex relationship between the city and its people, between a history of white-Anglo social dominance and modern globalization, and between the hierarchy of privilege and those it excludes.”
Here’s a link to the full article: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/what-we-all-long-for/
It’s been a little while since I read the book but I remember enjoying it and I think it could be teachable in the upper grades.