A quiet afternoon at a suburban high  school is suddenly shattered by a lockdown: armed police fill the hallway, and a  Muslim student suspected of terrorism is taken into custody. In Bifocal, award-winning YA authors Deborah Ellis and Eric Walters, using details that echo current news events, tell the story of two teens trying to remain faithful to the truth.

Although Jay is a new boy on the football team, he has already been anointed by the current captain, Kevin, so that gives him an edge in the weirdly stratified society that is high school. Haroon is a rising star, too, on the school’s team for the academic quiz show Reach for the Top. As the reasons for the lockdown are revealed and the investigation continues, it’s clear that Jay and Haroon are on a collision course.

Each boy reveals the action in his own voice: Jay’s chapters (by Walters) are written in past tense and focus on his relationship with Kevin, who makes it clear he doesn’t trust anyone outside of his own posse. Haroon’s story, written by Ellis in present tense, explores the frustrations of a family whose ethnicity affects the way they are perceived.

In a story that examines the dangers of stereotyping, it’s unfortunate that some characters seem formulaic. Kevin is a racist bully: why would Jay, who is decent and thoughtful, revere him so highly? And it seems strangely convenient that the entire Reach for the Top team is made up of kids whose ancestral homelands are rife with abuse and violence.

Although readers may stumble on these one-dimensional minor characters, the fast-moving plot will likely keep them on course, and other finely drawn characters, such as Haroon’s fierce sister, Zana, make up for the cardboard ones. Despite its flaws, this thought-provoking novel works extremely well as an examination of the dangers of racism and the redeeming value of tolerance.