Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Stephen Bryan helps to promote the book while at the book launch of ‘Bad Girls in School’ by Gwyneth Harold at the Alhambra Inn on Thursday, July 19. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

When it was time for a reading from Gwyneth Harold’s debut novel ‘Bad Girls in School’, at the Alhambra Inn, Tucker Avenue, St. Andrew, on Thursday evening, a trio of girls in red shirts skipped their way to stand before the audience.

Actually, they did more than stand as, smiling, they briefly played a handclap game to the jolly deejay rhythms of ‘Elephant Message’, bowing as the large audience applauded at the end, then took their positions at three microphones.

There were two other persons, along with Harold, involved in the dramatisation of a section of Bad Girls in School, which was being officially presented to the public. The handclapping trio did the three girls who were deemed disruptive at Redeemer College, Caledonia Nuttall, Ta Jeeka Brentford and Katreena Melmac, while two others did their teacher for a year, Elaine Mico and Joyce Pattel.

All are members of the St. Hugh’s High School Drama Club. And when the evening’s host, Vivian Crawford, asked all past and present students of St. Hugh’s to stand, a significant percentage of the audience did so, smiling.

George Davis, executive director of The Book Merchant Ltd., and Beryl Parmenter, regional sales manager, Caribbean and Africa, of Harcourt Education, represented retailer and publisher respectively. However, it was psychologist and change agent Dr. Leahcim Semaj who put Bad Girls in School in context.

“The book also captures the essence of now. It supplements dated material,” Semaj said, after noting that, as a published author, Harold is now formally a role model to aspiring authors. “Reading about ourselves is extremely important,” Semaj said, pointing out that being universal in reach comes from being very specific. “Cross Roads just comes alive, the places, the names, the issues. I probably see all geography classes using it,” he said.

“It is possible that this book will get young people reading and see themselves,” Semaj said, noting that it is also possible that parents and teachers will also see themselves in the book and develop new approaches to young people.

Required reading

And he said that Bad Girls in School “must become required reading in the schools. If that does not happen our people won’t read, because high school is our last chance,” he said, returning to an earlier point that many times what persons read is largely restricted to what they are required to do for English literature classes.

After the dramatisation, Harold read the chapter ‘Postcard of Cross Roads’, which included the description “If you wanted a single snapshot of Cross Roads that captured the mood of the area, the best image would be one focusing on roads, some winding, some straight and some appearing out of sharp corners and ending abruptly.”

In her thank yous, Harold said “Harcourt was a warm and very professional organisation to work with” and thanked The Book Merchant for their involvement. “I am proud to be a product of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission,” Harold said to applause.

Copies of Bad Girls in School were presented to representatives of the National Library of Jamaica, the Jamaica Library Service, St. Hugh’s High School, and a Ms. Lambert, for being the first person to get to the launch. And there was a surprise for Harold from The Book Merchant, a framed copy of the cover of Bad Girls in School.