• Age: 9 to 12
• Grade: 4 to 7
• Reading age: 9 to 12

Rana’s on the team — but is he still all alone?

Short-listed for the 1996 Silver Birch Award

As a Sikh living in small-town British Columbia, Rana knows he is different. In fact, he is the first Sikh in Dinway to try out for the hockey team. But Rana persists, making the team and meeting Les, who becomes fast friends with him.

Still, the bullying from his teammates and community members continues. Then, just before the most important game of the season, an extraordinary event interrupts the lives of everyone in Dinway, and Rana risks everything.

Ann is a long time Williams Lake, British Columbia resident who has taught both in elementary schools and at the college level. She is the author of seven novels for young readers, most of them set in Barkerville during the gold rush. Her first book, Your Time, My Time was published twenty-two years ago and has been in print continuously since then. As well, Ann is the author of a book of poetry and the editor of three collections of short stories for young people. She also writes for adult readers, and her work has appeared in magazines and anthologies around the world. In Canada her work has been published in Canadian Living, Arts Forum (Ontario) and elsewhere, as well as being heard on CBC radio. Ann serves on the executive of several professional writers' organizations, both in British Columbia and Canada-wide.

Her books have been nominated for major Canadian book prizes and all of them have been selected as "Our Choice" titles by the Canadian Children's Book Centre. Ann is a popular workshop presenter at conferences for writers (Grades 5 to Adult) and is in demand as a speaker, both in schools and at literary festivals. She loves traveling, and is willing to gear her presentations to the needs and requests of a particular school or classroom. Her sessions are fast paced and entertaining, as well as informative. As one teacher commented after Ann had visited her school "She made history come alive."

More about Ann can be found at the CWILL BC website, http://www.cwill.bc.ca/public/search/member_detail/62.

Ann Walsh's profile page

• Short-listed, Silver Birch Award

Many boys Rana's age would have shared the same feelings dealing with discrimination and could easily relate to Rana. Shabash! would make a great addition to a classroom, sparking many interesting discussions. The story not only deals with prejudice but also with how feelings and actions can cause reactions and how we can make a difference just by accepting others as they are.