Tangerine

In Edward Bloor’s 1997 debut novel, Tangerine, Paul Fisher navigates the treacherous waters of attending middle school in a new town. In this young adult novel, the coming-of-age tale is complicated by the mystery of why Paul lost so much of his sight—the apocryphal story is that he looked at an eclipse too long—and by the presence of his violent older brother, Erik.

Included in the ALA Top Ten Best Books of the Year, Tangerine teams with intrigue and action, confronting issues of class, race, and belonging in innovative and poignant ways. All quotations in this guide come from the 1998 Scholastic, Inc. paperback edition.

Plot Summary

In Part 1, Paul and his family arrive at their new home in Lake Windsor Downs, one of the many recently developed gated communities in the citrus-growing region of Florida. He will attend Lake Windsor Middle School, while his older brother Erik will presumably be the star kicker on the Lake Windsor High School football team. Much about the location of their new home and school is troubling: There is a continuously burning muck fire that fouls the air; the once-abundant tangerine groves in the area have been razed to make way for the new sub-divisions; and Paul’s middle school classrooms are in hot and cramped portable units set up outside of the main building. This is not to mention the frequent thunderstorms and lightning strikes that accompany the omnipresent afternoon rain.

Still, Paul determines to make the best of it, befriending Joey Costello and going out to play with the soccer team. Alas, the IEP—an Individualized Education Plan— thwarts his intentions. Because of his visual impairment, the school’s insurance will not cover him to play in the soccer games.

In the meantime, Erik has befriended Arthur Bauer, whom Paul recognizes as another “thuggish” sidekick in a long line of obedient hangers-on. Erik’s football talent—he can kick a 50-yard field goal with ease—and his subsequent popularity, make him an alpha male in the ruthlessly competitive world of high school athletics. Paul is afraid of them both.

Within a week of the start of school, lightning strikes Joey Costello’s older brother, Mike, dead on the football field. The tragedy throws the community into an uproar, and the team begins practicing in the morning, with parents helping to carpool.

After the funeral, Paul and Joey attend the local carnival, as Joey’s parents want to keep him occupied after the terrible loss. There, Paul witnesses a group of soccer players from Tangerine Middle vandalizing one of the exhibits. Tangerine Middle is in the heart of town, rather than in one of the gated suburbs, and Joey indicates that the students there are tougher. Shortly after, a freak sinkhole opens at Windsor Lake Middle School, swallowing most of the portable units where Paul’s classes take place. He will, instead, transfer to Tangerine Middle to complete the semester while repairs are made. Paul can now abandon the IEP and find a spot on the Tangerine War Eagles’ soccer team.

In Part 2, Paul befriends some of the soccer players at Tangerine Middle and becomes one of the fearsome War Eagles. Tangerine Middle is a school where “minorities are the majority” (99), and Paul plays alongside Hispanic students, like Tino Cruz and Victor Guzman, as well as the Black female superstar, Shandra Thomas. At their first game, Paul witnesses outright hostility toward the team as they walk onto the field of one of the wealthier, less diverse schools. Due to his talent and loyalty, Paul quickly becomes a valuable member of the team, if he remains something of an outsider.

Back in Lake Windsor, the football season begins with prospects for Erik to shine brightly. However, quarterback Antoine Thomas makes him a laughingstock with a faked two-point conversion: Antoine whips the ball away at the last second, and Erik falls flat on his back in the mud. While the fans cheer the win, and most people believe memory of the incident will simply dissipate as the season goes on, Paul worries that arrogant Erik will not be able to let the incident go.

Paul talks Joey into attending Tangerine Middle with him. This turns out to be a mistake, as Joey is clearly uncomfortable and eventually unleashes an ugly, racist tirade in the middle of a crowded hallway. Unfortunately, this puts Paul in a suspect light, and he will have to work hard to keep the trust he has earned with his new set of friends.

To that end, Paul travels to the Tomas Cruz Groves/Nursery to work on a science project with Tino and Theresa Cruz: Their older brother, Luis, has invented a new variety of tangerine, the Golden Dawn, about which they will write a school report. Paul finds himself surprisingly impressed by the groves, not to mention by Luis himself. He returns to the farm unannounced and spends an afternoon picking fruit; in a moment of familiarity, he admits to Tino that he was the one who told the authorities about the vandalism at the carnival. Instead of fostering closeness, Paul again makes himself an object of suspicion. In the end, though, Paul again proves himself on the soccer pitch, assisting the War Eagles as they clinch the championship.

In Part 3, the lingering atmosphere of suspicion that hangs over Paul compounds when his classmates visit his home. They recognize Paul’s privilege and comment on it freely. Worse, there is a confrontation between Tino Cruz and Erik when he mockingly talks about “these farm-labor kids” (198). When Tino aggressively protests the defamation, Erik backhands him so hard it knocks him off his feet. Luis subsequently shows up at football practice to confront Erik regarding his actions toward his younger brother. Arthur Bauer strikes Luis on the temple with a blackjack at Erik’s behest. Paul witnesses the entire incident, appalled and afraid.

Luis later dies, and Paul researches whether his death could be the result of the earlier blow and comes to the awful conclusion that it does. At Senior Awards Night in Lake Windsor, Tino and a friend show up to attack Erik, having discovered what happened to Luis. Paul helps them escape, running away himself. Erik and Arthur hunt him down, convinced that Paul is the one who has caused the trouble. It is in this moment that Paul recovers the traumatic memory of how his eyes became damaged: Erik believed that Paul told his parents that Erik and a friend were vandalizing property, so Erik held Paul’s eyes open while his friend sprayed white paint into them.

This revelation, along with his knowledge of what actually happened to Luis Cruz, emboldens him. He stands up to his sociopathic brother and confronts his parents, who knew what Erik did to Paul all along. Further sealing Erik’s fate is the revelation that he and Arthur were committing burglaries throughout the neighborhood.

Tangerine Middle expels Paul for assisting Tino at the Lake Windsor award ceremony—in the fracas, he assaulted a teacher—so he’ll attend his third school of the year, St. Anthony’s, a private Catholic school. He’s determined to return to Tangerine Middle and the War Eagles team next year, no matter what his parents might say. The book closes as his Dad, repentant and subdued, drives past tangerine trees to Paul’s new school.