D.P.

This bizarre, and heartwarming tale, comes from the pen of one of our leading satirists, novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. D.P. is the story of Toby, a young black child living in an orphanage in Germany just after the close of WWII. A strange sight in an Aryan landscape, Toby is often referred to as "Joe Louis" or the "Brown Bomber" by local inhabitants. One day, during a soccer game, a worker shouts to Toby that his father is in town, and the boy runs away from the orphanage to find him. Stan Shaw plays the black sergeant, who is surprised and perplexed when confronted by the German-speaking boy who knows only one English word: "papa." In a predominantly white landscape, Toby is truly, in the words of the sergeant, "about the most displaced person I've ever seen." Since the sergeant's company is moving out in the morning, it's up to him to return the boy. Their ride together back to the orphanage is a learning experience for them both, as the boy doggedly holds on to the promise of an identity, and the sergeant just as resolutely refuses to be one more person in the long line of disappointments and false hopes the boy is sure to have. Although the program won an Emmy award for Outstanding Children's Program, D.P. does contain a few ribald sexual references (which would probably go over most children's heads.) A powerful story; highly recommended for both school and public libraries. (Available from most distributors.)