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Tagged
Tagged
Tagged
Ebook73 pages57 minutes

Tagged

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The city is cracking down on graffiti and guerilla art. Between that and cutbacks to the local art gallery it seems like nothing is safe. But Oswald, masquerading as a graffiti artist known as The Wiz, is fighting back—by painting elaborate murals in public places and planting art in the galleries, and then by taking on the mayor himself. As the fight escalates and the stakes become higher, Oswald gets in deeper than he meant to and needs to rely on his friends to get him out of his latest mess.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 1, 2013
ISBN9781459801707
Tagged
Author

Eric Walters

Eric Walters is a Member of the Order of Canada and the author of over 125 books that have collectively won more than 100 awards including the Governor General’s Literary Award for The King of Jam Sandwiches. A former teacher, Eric began writing as a way to get his fifth-grade students interested in reading and writing. Eric is a tireless presenter, speaking to over 100,000 students per year in schools across the country. He lives in Guelph, Ontario.

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Best friends Ian, Julia, and Oswald go to view some mural-size graffiti with the tag Wiz and they begin to debate the difference between art and graffiti. While Julia admits the artwork is good she asks why don’t you see graffiti-type art in museums. More of the artwork poking fun at the law and order mayor appears around town, even turning up in one of the art museums. Astute readers will discover the identity of Wiz before Ian and Julia do, but the feel-good ending will please most readers. Meant for reluctant readers, it is a fun read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Ages 13-18.Oswald, Ian, and Julia are best friends taking an interest in the mysterious career of “The Wiz,” a street artist whose murals are popping up all over the city. The mayor calls street art vandalism, and is cracking down on it in an attempt to draw in more businesses. When the Wiz starts commenting on the mayor’s policies in his art, the mayor comes after him. The Wiz will need some help getting out of this trouble.Tagged encourages readers to think about how art can be more than what is framed on a wall, and how it expresses social and political commentary. The friends engage in lively debates about the role of art in public spaces, exploring multiple perspectives. Though the novel explores art’s relationship to politics, parties are not explicitly mentioned. Readers are given a sense of the mayor’s business-before-art priorities, but the point of the novel is respecting the power of teen leadership. Each of the three friends has a clever role in the solution. A Hi-Lo book, Tagged captures teen interest but is accessible for those reading at a third grade level. There is whitespace and large enough font to support emergent readers, without the text feeling babyish. Vocabulary words that may be unfamiliar, such as “stencil” or “portfolio,” are explained in dialogue without disrupting the flow.Tagged was inspired by the street artist Banksy and is dedicated to “Deadboy,” a real life street artist responding to Toronto mayor Tom Ford’s “war on graffiti.” A great pick for idealistic teens who know they aren’t too young to have ideas that matter, challenge authority, or to make a difference in their community. Recommended.

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Tagged - Eric Walters

Tagged


Eric Walters

ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

Copyright © 2013 Eric Walters

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Walters, Eric, 1957-

Tagged [electronic resource] / Eric Walters.

(Orca soundings)

Electronic monograph.

Issued also in print format.

ISBN 978-1-4598-0169-1 (PDF).--ISBN 978-1-4598-0170-7 (EPUB)

I. Title. II. Series: Orca soundings (Online)

PS8595.A598T33 2013              jC813'.54              C2012-907468-3

First published in the United States, 2013

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012952949

Summary: A graffiti artist—the Wiz—takes on the city and the mayor in a fight to save the heart of the community.

Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

Cover photography by Karlis Dravins

www.orcabook.com

16 15 14 13 • 4 3 2 1

I'd like to thank Deadboy—

a true artist, a deep thinker

and a real gentleman.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

About Deadboy

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Watch your head, I said as I pulled the wire up to enlarge the hole in the fence.

Julia slipped through the opening.

You always bring us to the loveliest places.

It will be lovely.

You’ve seen it, Ian? Oswald asked as he followed behind us.

No, but they’re always good, so I don’t know why this one wouldn’t be.

We slid down the concrete slope of the little waterway. At one point it had been a real river with mud banks and plants and fish, and it would have twisted and turned. Now it was as straight as an arrow, trapped between two concrete banks, with no life, more like a sewer than a stream.

How do you even know there’s something down here? Julia asked.

It came to my Twitter feed.

She shook her head sadly. I can’t believe you spend so much time on there.

"I can’t believe that you haven’t signed up."

I haven’t got time to waste on it.

It’s not a waste. It led me here, didn’t it?

As I said, it’s a waste of time. I’m not seeing anything except nothing, so I stand by my comment, she said.

It’s under the bridge.

That makes sense, Oswald added. That’s out of the way, hidden from the road and prying eyes.

I thought I was starting to see something. There was more and more and—

Wow, I said.

There it was, a painted cliff with a flock of sheep at the top, two tumbling down, one at the bottom, half of it painted right to the waterline of the real river and the rest of it underwater and unseen. Two more sheep were floating downstream, just their legs showing. There was one sheep at the top with a word balloon saying, Didn’t anybody learn to swim?

Well, what do you think now? I asked Julia.

It certainly is big.

I wasn’t asking you to measure it but to appreciate it.

Ian, at this point all I can appreciate is that it’s big, she replied.

I turned to Oswald. What’s your opinion?

She’s right—it is big. But in my opinion, it’s pretty good.

Pretty good? It’s beautiful, amazing and incredible, I said.

This might be the best one. It is a real piece of art, Oswald agreed.

And what exactly do you know about art? Julia challenged.

I know what I like.

You like lasagna, but that doesn’t make it art.

First off, I love lasagna, and second off, there is an art to cooking. Edible art may be my favorite kind.

He’s right, I agreed. Food can be art. There was this sculptor who only used raw meat.

My butcher does that, Oswald said. You should see the display case in his deli.

No, I’m serious. It was at some fancy museum in London. He made these sculptures out of meat, and then the meat rotted over the next month, and people watched the changing sculptures.

That is seriously disgusting! Julia protested.

I laughed. I imagine it didn’t smell so good. Lots of people protested against it.

I would have protested that too, Oswald added.

"You

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