{"product_id":"skids","title":"Skids","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eShortlisted for a ReLit Award for Best Story Collection\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003ci\u003eI still want that imagine mother. I still want my mother. Here in the House, we're all one line of wanting mothers, being. Some days I don't even know if my real mom's alive or dead. And since I've been clean, I can't go down East Hastings cuz I'm still too shaky. Maybe Mom'll quit one day, like I did. Maybe she'll learn to care for herself. Like I'm learning to. Like the ghost said.\u003c\/i\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\r\nSkid row: an impoverished neighbourhood, a phrase originating in the Depression era. Skids: tire marks in the street. Skids: street kids.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\r\nThe stories told in \u003ci\u003eSkids\u003c\/i\u003e are elegiac confessions of the street: young kids living on their own, many of them runaways or addicts, eking out an existence in the brutal environs of Vancouver's Downtown East Side.  Often harrowing, these are the tales of the disenfranchised: teens and young adults holed up in shelters or city parks, in detox clinics or recovery houses, their secrets laid bare, their voices heard. Told in the vernacular of the street, these stories reverberate with a sense of urgency and desperation, but amidst the chaos, there are also acts of compassion and displays of camaraderie; as readers, we are compelled to know them, to not avert their glances.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \r\n\r\n\u003ci\u003eSkids\u003c\/i\u003e is based on the author's personal experience trying to get clean in recovery houses among street youths; while not homeless herself, she had many friends who were. For Cathleen, writing \u003ci\u003eSkids\u003c\/i\u003e was a way to pay homage to the kids she befriended, many of whom are now gone; \u003ci\u003eSkids\u003c\/i\u003e honours their stories, and makes them matter.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\r\nPartial proceeds from the sales of \u003ci\u003eSkids\u003c\/i\u003e will go to assist Covenant House Vancouver.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cb\u003eFilm option sold to Death March Films\u003c\/b\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cathleen With (CA)","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback Trade paperback (US)","offer_id":44733322756389,"sku":"9781551522159","price":19.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0727\/7851\/4725\/products\/BNCImageAPI_fe12b35c-10d1-472b-b129-e6d79a7fb614.jpg?v=1679349666","url":"https:\/\/crossandcrows.myshopify.com\/products\/skids","provider":"Cross \u0026 Crows Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}