Fast Friends
Fast Friends
Then Tyson and the teachers and the kids and the basketball players all heard a new sound, one they’d never heard before.
It was Suze.
She was waving her arms and laughing — great big happy belly laughs.
Tyson grinned. He wasn’t too fast. He was speedy-quick.
And that was just fast enough.
Tyson, the main character of the story Fast Friends, is an energetic school-aged boy who does everything super fast. His speedy-quick demeanor sometimes gets him into trouble, such as his knocking over things or people, actions that draw the teacher to frown upon him and which lead to him finding himself alone in recess.
Then one day, a new kid, Suze, joins the class. She sits in a shiny red chair and wears a shiny red helmet, just like in the race car picture Tyson makes on the wall. The pair bond immediately over the picture and story reading. All the teachers and kids treat Suze extremely carefully and walk her super slowly in the schoolyard. Tyson can tell that Suze is bored on the slow walks, and he very much wants to walk Suze, but, because of his speediness, he is not trusted by the teacher to do so.
Finally, albeit with great hesitation, the teacher gives Tyson the job to walk Suze. The excitement causes him to race around the schoolyard with Suze. Everyone gets nervous and rushes after them. Just then, they all hear a delightful belly laugh from Suze, indicating her great joy with her speedy-quick new friend.
Heather M. O’Connor grounds her familial experience in a delightful story and writes in a way that shows rather than tells. From beginning to end, there is zero didactic message concerning children with special needs. The character Tyson feels like a reflective role of Suze, showing the same excited, energetic and playful little kid behind the wheelchair and helmet. All readers will engage with Tyson and Suze and think about how they can better demonstrate empathy and celebrate differences in ways that recipients would appreciate more.
Claudia Dávila’s illustrations, with their movement and vibrant colors, complete the package. Pictures full of school details speak directly to young readers and help them fit themselves into the story’s setting.
Fast Friends is engaging, and its contents will provide superb talking points about special education and difference with audiences of school-aged children as well as the adults in their lives. This book will serve as an excellent addition to classrooms, school libraries, and programs on relevant topics.
Emma Chen is a Ph.D. student in Education at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Her research areas include family literacy, parent engagement, and immigrant children’s heritage language education.