Angel Boy
by by Bernard Ashley
Leonard Boameh is bored at home, his grandmother is no good at football and his dad works away from home. (Home is incidently a small village in rural Ghana). One day he decides to spice up his life by catching the bus into the city port of Elmina, having a look around, catching the return bus and being back in time for tea with his unsuspecting grandma.
Leonard is still at primary school and his lack of guile soon means his day out becomes an extended game of cat and mouse with a street gang made up of thieves and beggars, boys much bigger than him.
It's an OK story but the age of Leonard it makes it a junior story and its lack of girl characters must reduce the intended audience further. The African setting adds a bit of variety and there is a nod towards the historical importance of Elmina as a slave-port but at the end of the day I was irritated by Leonard. He has enough nous to approach European backpackers and to hang on the coat tails of a tour guide but doesn't approach the ticket office to make a phone call to the hotel where his dad works; somehow it doesn't seem to ring true.