Focus. Click. Wind.

by Amanda West Lewis

What if your country is involved in an unjust war, and you’ve lost trust in your own government? It's 1968, and the Vietnam War has brought new urgency to the life of Billie Taylor, a seventeen-year-old aspiring photojournalist. Billie is no stranger to risky situations, but when she attends a student protest at Columbia University with her college boyfriend, and the US is caught up in violent political upheaval, her mother decides to move the two of them to Canada. Furious at being dragged away from her beloved New York City to live in a backwater called Toronto, Billie doesn’t take her exile lightly. As her mother opens their home to draft evaders and deserters, Billie’s activism grows in new ways. She discovers an underground network of political protesters and like minds in a radical group based in Rochdale College, the world’s first “free” university. And the stakes rise when she is exposed to horrific images from Vietnam of the victims of Agent Orange – a chemical being secretly manufactured in a small town just north of Toronto. Suddenly she has to ask herself some hard questions. How far will she go to be part of a revolution? Is violence ever justified? Or does standing back just make you part of the problem?
Key Text Features author’s note chapters dialogue epigraph facts historical context literary references song lyrics

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult

224 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2023

About the author

Amanda West Lewis has combined careers as a writer, theatre director, calligrapher, book artist and instructor. She has spent her career working in the arts and in arts education.

Amanda is the author of seven books for young people. Her latest novel, The Pact, sets friendship, poverty and family amidst the culture of indoctrination and propaganda in Nazi Germany. Her previous novel, September 17, is a fictionalized account of the sinking of the S.S. City of Benares during the Second World War. September 17 was nominated for the Silver Birch Award, the Red Cedar Award, and the Violet Downey IODE Award.

Amanda is a member of the Writers Guild of Canada, CANSCAIP, and The Great Canadian Theatre Company's Playwright's Network. She lives with her husband, writer Tim Wynne-Jones, outside of Perth Ontario. They have 3 grown children who are a constant source of joy and inspiration.

Reviews

[Stephanie Fitzgerald · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one fell way short of my expectations.
From the cover art and summary, I thought this would be a Y.A., coming-of-age story, set in 1968. The historical parts were interesting; the graphic descriptions of seventeen-year-old Billie’s frequent sexual encounters got old quickly. I DNF’d at 40%.

[Rheathebookwormdreamergirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Phil Dwyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ostensibly YA (the protagonist is 17) but actually an interesting and powerful story whatever your age. It's a historical novel, set (mainly) in Toronto in 1968, at the height of protests against the Vietnam war. A quick read, and one that's well-worth your time.

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Billie, a high school junior, is a budding photographer and Vietnam War protestor. It’s 1968 America and things are turning violent. Billie’s mom moves the two of them to Canada in hopes of a safer future, but Billie reconnects with old friends who have escaped the draft into Canada. Maybe Canada isn’t as safe as it seems.

I read this book because I was hoping it would provide a good overview of American society during the Vietnam war. I’m always on the hunt for good historical fiction to help explain under-studied periods in history. “Focus. Click. Wind.” was not for me. Some turns of phrase were not well-explained for contemporary young adults. The process of developing film was well-explained for someone who knows the process, but contemporary young adults have never developed film so it’s a complete mystery (e.g. why a red light?).

I was bothered by the overly explicit sex between Billie (a minor) and her boyfriend, Dan (not a minor). The drug use seems excessive. Billie is extremely angsty and Dan is not a nice person.

CW: violence, sex, drug abuse

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book provided by NetGalley and the publisher, Groundwood Books. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Maureen Marovitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Focus. Click. Wind. does a masterful job taking readers into the world of older teenagers in 1968, a time when Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy had just been assassinated, America was at war in Vietnam and and university campuses were awash in anti-war protests. The novel launches right in this chaos where 17-year-old Billie Taylor is being torn away from her university boyfriend at a peaceful campus sit-in being quashed violently by the police. The experience cements Billie's dream to be a photojournalist whose art can bring meaningful change. But after her boyfriend enlists and her mother moves them to Toronto to escape the chaos in New York, Billie feels lost in the Canadian hinterlands. She wants to make a difference with her camera and even her mom sheltering US draft dodgers doesn't feel like enough- not when deadly Agent Orange is being manufactured nearby in Ontario. As Billie grows more distant from her mother, her passion for photography draws her to other activist exiled young Americans, and soon she is entangled in their radical plans. Billie is drawn into their world, one that has her questioning whether using violence to fight violence is ever justifiable, and if being the one recording the action is enough of a protest in itself. This novel is gritty - it doesn't shy away from the sex, drug use and violence of the era, nor does it minimize how hotheaded and at times cruel Billie can be to her mother, and I loved it for that. Back when I was a teenage reader, I appreciated books that didn't hide or sugarcoat reality. Beautifully written and always gripping, this novel of Billie, her mother and friends each trying to find the best way to stand up against injustice and war should have great resonance for this generation of YA readers.

[Jennifer Londry · Rating 5 out of 5]

FOCUS. CLICK. WIND.
By Amanda West Lewis

Billie, a NYC high school student captures the drama of Anti-Vietnam War sentiment unfolding through the lens of her Hasselblad camera. Demonstrators on university campuses and in the streets are being assaulted daily by the Fuzz, who wear tactical shields and wield clubs wet with blood.

Billie is furious when she hears her boyfriend has enlisted in the US Army. He naively believes he will not be sent overseas because he is a college student. Billie's mother meanwhile recognizes the danger of them staying in the United States of America, especially after JFK is assassinated.

The two relocate to Toronto, Ontario, where Billie's mother opens her home to draft dodgers, and Billie joins a resistance movement. The killing machine rages on in the jungle, turning soldiers into heroin addicts, humans into science experiments as the US Airforce drops Agent Orange from the sky. Billie's group decides they need to take a more aggressive political stand and that decision almost ends up costing Billie her life.

FOCUS. CLICK. WIND., is the perfect read for our time.
Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press (2023)

[Catherine Orfald · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really resonated with me. Although I was younger than Billie at that time, I was deeply impacted by the Vietnam War and protests too. My family also moved from the States to Canada at that time. The line, "I can't go into exile like some igloo." had such veracity... my U.S. friends thought that's what I'd done!
The character is well developed and I loved the connection in this book to the previous one, "These are Not the Words."
I couldn't put this down. It brought back some of the tension of that scary time. Stay fierce, Billie!

[Alanna King · Rating 4 out of 5]

A historical fiction that crosses borders as well as time. It’s written almost like a stream of consciousness— so that the five senses are used only through the protagonist’s point of view. I think the style enhances the naivety of the story and her acceptance of the events as they unfold as if she’s a bystander until she is an active participant in the Re are moments of real tension but the secondary characters are flattened by this myopic view of Billie’s world. Although compelling, I felt often too removed to feel deeper resonance with the story.

[Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was alright, war based stories aren't something I usually go for because I don't particularly enjoy them, but this at least wasn't preying on WWII capitalism so it was a nice change. I found myself not really enjoying a lot of it, though, Billie wasn't a character I meshed with personally and the whole subplot of her wanting to go back home felt drawn out too far into the book. The ending was rather abrupt, and I didn't feel much attachment by that point, it feels like things just sort of end.

[John Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gritty realistic recreation of the chaos and tension young people felt and dealt with during the Vietnam War. Billie is torn between wanting to make an impact in the antiwar movement and and returning the New York City after her mother moves them to Toronto. She saw first hand how violent the police can get, even when protesters are clearly nonviolent, when she was caught in a building on the Columbia University campus.
What happens to her boyfriend, Dan, her other friends, the draft resisters and deserters she and her mother help after coming to Canada, are all very realistic and clear portrayals of how things were at the time. I should know, I was one of those protestors. This is a great addition to young adult historical fiction.

[Denise Goodkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This "young adult" book was a bit much for my 13 year old granddaughter ( we read it together ). Too much unnecessary sex IMO. However, it did provide some good info about the Vietnam war and 'draft dodgers' who came to Canada during that time.

[Mary Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful story set in 1968 NYC and Toronto as 17 year old Billie struggles for a meaningful way to express her opposition to the war in Vietnam.

[Michael]

My interview with Lewis discussing the book is here:
https://umfm.com/programming/broadcas...