Shayna's Shadows

Shayna's Shadows by Paul Philip Brown

Calling people names:

Is it harmless fun?

Or is it a dangerous first step towards bigotry?

Shayna's arrival at Pierre Elliott Trudeau Junior High School begins well until her Jewishness attracts the wrong kind of attention. Gilbert and his friends seem to be lurking everywhere, and it doesn't look as though they'll ever leave her alone.


From Yorkdale Shopping Centre to the underground city beneath Toronto, from SkyDome to the Young People's Theatre, Shayna struggles to find the courage to confront her tormentors before their hurtful prejudices overwhelm her.

Paul Philip Brown

About Paul Philip Brown

Paul Brown has been teaching in Toronto, Canada, for over 35 years, with 21 of those years spent at the junior high school level. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, he attended what was then called the Toronto Hebrew Day School, a private Jewish elementary school providing both regular school subjects, as well as an in-depth exposure to Jewish Bible, history, culture, prayer and Hebrew language.

After graduating from North Toronto Collegiate, Brown attended the University of Toronto, enrolling in the General Arts program with a major in psychology. His first degree was followed by a Master of Education Degree at OISE with a concentration in Guidance and Counselling.

Brown's in-depth experience with young people aged three to twenty runs the gamut from camp counsellor to bus driver, from private tutor to guidance counsellor. In 1989 he was granted a paid sabbatical by the then North York Board of Education. His area of study included an analysis of the Ulpan system of combining concentrated second language instruction with cultural integration of immigrants in a multi-cultural setting -- in Israel.

Having spent most of his adult life working with junior high and high school students, Brown wanted to create a vehicle for addressing some of the most challenging issues young people constantly face—bullying, bigotry, racism and anti-Semitism. The compelling novel Shayna's Shadows is the thought-provoking result.

The father of six, Brown lives in Toronto.