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発行者による作品情報
"Readers will be captivated by this beautifully written novel about young people who must use their instincts and grit to survive. Padma shares with us an unflinching peek into the reality millions of homeless children live every day but also infuses her story with hope and bravery that will inspire readers and stay with them long after turning the final page."--Aisha Saeed, author of the New York Times Bestselling Amal Unbound
Four determined homeless children make a life for themselves in Padma Venkatraman's stirring middle-grade debut.
Life is harsh in Chennai's teeming streets, so when runaway sisters Viji and Rukku arrive, their prospects look grim. Very quickly, eleven-year-old Viji discovers how vulnerable they are in this uncaring, dangerous world. Fortunately, the girls find shelter--and friendship--on an abandoned bridge. With two homeless boys, Muthi and Arul, the group forms a family of sorts. And while making a living scavenging the city's trash heaps is the pits, the kids find plenty to laugh about and take pride in too. After all, they are now the bosses of themselves and no longer dependent on untrustworthy adults. But when illness strikes, Viji must decide whether to risk seeking help from strangers or to keep holding on to their fragile, hard-fought freedom.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this exquisitely narrated novel set in Chennai, India, 11-year-old Viji and her sister, Rukku, run away from their abusive father after he breaks their mother's arm and hits Rukku. On the city streets, the sisters find shelter by a bridge, adopt a stray dog, and meet brothers Mathu and Arul, who quickly become a kind of family to them. Venkatraman (A Time to Dance) vividly sketches the group's precarious economic situation the boys teach the sisters how to scale trash mountains for saleable metal and glass, a drunken waste man threatens them and the care they take with one another as they face the rainy season and illness. Viji also attends to her sister, who discovers new independence on the streets, such as a gift for beadwork that makes them money. The narrative is told in a letter from Viji to Rukku, the writing of which, readers gradually learn, is Viji's way of handling deep grief. This is a poignant portrait of love, sacrifice, and chosen family in the midst of poverty. Ages 10 up.
