Were the characters of Tiwana, Lydia, and Calvin also in the book?

Question

In the movie, Standing Up, there is an act that deals with Howie and Grace getting on a bus belonging to a different camp. This leads to a potential confrontation with racial undertones which, at least to me, felt like it was more likely to have been added in for the screenplay.

Are the characters of Tiwana, Lydia, and Calvin also in the book, The Goats, which was the source of the script? Are they Black? Is their camp also largely Black?

Answer 1

Based on a very quick scan of "The Goats":

• The character of Tiwanda, Lydia and Calvin are indeed in the source novel.

• All three characters are black:

A tall black girl [Lydia] whirled against them, her eyes shining with excitement. She gathered them both under her thin, elegant arms as if she must hold on to something or fall down.

and

The black teenager smiled and nodded as if that were the right answer.
“That your chick?” he asked, tipping his head at the girl.
“Yes,” said the boy.
“Nice.”
“Hey, Calvin, you leave them alone,”

and

Before the boy could answer, the teenager who had lost his quarter in the machine took the black girl’s elbow and steered her into the seat behind them. “Sit down, Tiwanda,” he said.

• Based on the descriptions of the camp attendees, it's impossible to judge what the overall racial demographic of the camp is. That said, of the 'kids' mentioned by name, there are four black and two white which would imply that it's at least relatively mixed.