“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 … 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.
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I thought this book was extremely engaging. it is a page turner. thats all im gonna say.
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.
An outstanding book that illustrated the appalling living conditions some children face. At the same time, it’s never preachy, nor does it read like an information laden text.
Heartwarming? No! Heartchilling? Yes! “Viji and Rukku together.” Beautiful sentiment, but nothing is forever …. Viji tells the sad story of the life the young girls encountered after fleeing their parents’ home in India. Their alcoholic father often left his mark on his daughters with split lips and bruised faces. Their weak and also physically abused mother didn’t have the mental, emotional or physical strength to take her daughters and run. She never tried to stop the beatings her daughters received. Their mother explains, “We can’t manage without him. No one employs uneducated women with no skills….Please understand, Viji.” She was begging me, the same pathetic way she’d beg Appa (Father). “I promised … to be a good wife … no matter what. I can’t leave.”
Tired of their hopeless situation, Viji takes her younger developmentally disabled sister Rukku and escapes into the world she knows nothing about. They encounter scores of young children fending for themselves on the mean streets, hiding in alleys, cemeteries, or holes in the ground—victims of abuse or abandonment, or orphaned—infested with vermin and disease, filthy, starving, falling prey to those who would enslave them for nefarious purposes, barely one step ahead of final tragedy.
The sisters adopt an abandoned puppy, then meet two kind boys, Muthu and Arul, and together they form a family. The boys teach the girls how to scavenge in garbage piles for scrap metal and other recyclables. Rukku surprises everyone with her new found ability to string beads into beautiful necklaces which she is able to sell. With these money-making endeavors, the children are able to buy food and medicine. Celina Aunty offers legitimate help through the Concerned for Working Children organization. At first the children are afraid to trust this woman and her motives. Despite their best efforts, tragedy strikes.
Arul encourages Viji to pursue her dream of becoming a teacher. “I don’t mind if you have no religion, Viji. Just as long as you have faith in the goodness within yourself…. Start looking at what you haven’t lost…. Start giving thanks for what you do have.”
Viji finds the strength within herself to live her life to the fullest. When given the opportunity to return to her parents, Viji vehemently refuses. Seeing her parents’ hopeless situation for what it is, Viji forges ahead to continue to improve her own life, as well as those around her. Viji’s sense of obligation to the desperate children of the world adds to her motivation.
In the Author’s Notes, we learn that the characters and situations are based on real accounts by people who actually lived.The Concerned for Working Children has grown in size and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The book is written in simple language with short sentences. In spite of the horrendous scenes, somehow the characters do not evoke emotional response. The accounts are similar to factual newspaper accounts with the absence of emotion and empathy. We’re never told the children’s ages or that the story is set in India. Somehow, the author misses the mark on emotional content. This being said, the point is well made and lessons are learned.
Significance of title? On which end of the bridge does their true home lie?