White Girl

White Girl (2004) is a realistic novel for young adults by Canadian author Sylvia Olsen. Teenager Josie Jessop doesn’t think much about her race until her mother marries “a real ponytail Indian” and they move to the reservation. Josie suddenly goes from a “nothing special” girl from the city to a “white girl.” As Josie faces challenges of prejudice and bullying, she learns more about herself, the nature of friendship, and the importance of family. Olsen, a nonnative, married a member of the Tsartlip First Nations at a young age and moved to the reserve where she raised four children. Olsen spent most of her life in the Tsartlip community. According to her website, Olsen enjoys writing about “the place, the time, and the experience of where different kinds of people come together.” White Girl was a Shelia A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize Nominee in 2005.

Josie narrates the story of her first challenging year living on the reservation. She is 15 when her mother, Lenore, meets Martin, and Josie’s life changes. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed, Josie thinks of herself as an ordinary teen. She and Lenore live in an apartment in an average-sized Canadian city, and Josie enjoys going to the mall with her friends. Her life is comfortable and normal even though Lenore isn’t the best mom: she’s usually in a “permanent case of semi-depression,” can’t have a meaningful conversation with Josie, is unable to make big decisions, and the parents of Josie’s friends think of her as “white trash.” When Lenore tells Josie that she has fallen in love with Martin, initially Josie is happy for her. Josie thinks Martin is good for Lenore. But when Lenore decides to marry Martin, insisting that they’ll all live happily ever after on the reservation, Josie rebels. Outraged that her mom casually made a life-altering decision for them both, Josie leaves to stay with her friends. But other families can’t keep her forever, and Josie and her mother move to the reservation.

Martin and his 17-year-old son, Luke, live in an old, musty house. Martin is nice; he admits he has done jail time and his forehead is marked with scars, but he is kind and gentle and does the cooking and cleaning. He carves and sells wooden canoes. Martin calls Josie “Blondie.” Luke is handsome and affable. Still, Josie feels like an intruder in the house. Lenore watches television, smokes cigarettes, and doesn’t leave the house. Lenore is prejudiced against, and afraid of, the other Indians: She calls Martin the “one good Indian.” Josie spends the summer hiding in her room, missing her friends and wishing she were back in the city. Nevertheless, come the fall, Josie must face tenth grade.



School is worse than Josie had imagined. She is the one white kid who rides the Indian bus. She sticks out because of her skin color, and the other kids call her names like “honky chick” and make her feel unwelcome. Finally, a “tough but cute” Indian girl named Rose takes Josie under her wing. Rose takes Josie on a walking tour of the reservation. Josie is surprised how close they are to the bay. She loves the beauty of the beach. Rose knows and speaks to everyone, but Josie gets a cold reception from the community. Rose confides that people were shocked that Martin married a white woman. Josie distances herself from Rose, retreating into silence.

Josie bonds with Martin’s elderly, hospitalized mother. Josie calls her Grandma. Josie likes having a real grandmother who cares about her: Josie isn’t close to Lenore’s mother, Mavis. Grandma waits for Martin to get the house ready for her to go home, so she doesn’t have to move into an old people’s home. Lenore doesn’t want Martin’s mom to live with them. Josie worries that Lenore is about to call the whole thing off and run back to the city—and Josie suddenly wants to stay. Josie realizes she likes having a family in Martin, Luke, and Grandma. She enjoys the long face-to-face conversations and the different lifestyle on the reservation.

Josie bails on going to a concert with Rose after some “bad rep” boys intimidate her and she is bullied by two mean girls, Christy and Mary Ann. Rose calls Josie out, telling her she acts stuck up, “like you’re too good for us.” When Christy and Mary Ann start a fight with Rose and Josie, Luke intervenes and stands up for them. Josie and Rose become fast friends. As Josie opens up and learns more about the people and the reservation, she feels less excluded. She meets Zeb, an older boy with a gangster reputation. Zeb’s brother sells cocaine, but Zeb vows to break the cycle. Josie starts going out with Zeb, while Rose dates Zeb’s friend, Jason.



Martin’s brother, Uncle Arie, shows up drunk to Christmas dinner shouting racist comments about white people living in Grandma’s house. Martin continues to get the basement ready for Luke to move into so Grandma can come home. He confides that the basement was his little sister Ermaline’s room. Ermaline committed suicide there at the age of seventeen. Afterward, Martin closed the door and never went into the room again. Martin calls the village Elders to pray and cleanse the room. Josie gives Grandma a poem that she wrote, and Lenore finally says it is time to bring Grandma home. At an anniversary party for Martin and Lenore, Uncle Arnie starts to make racist comments again, but Josie stands up to him and says she and her mom are there because Lenore and Martin love each other. Later, listening to the sounds of the family in the full house, and thinking about past family members like Ermaline, Josie writes that she “heard stories I had never heard before and I knew this was only a beginning.”