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*****= An all-time favorite
****  = Outstanding
***    = Above average
**      = Enjoyable
*        = Good, with reservations

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****The Other Side of Truth

by Beverley Naidoo

Reviewed December 6, 2001.
HarperCollins Publishers, 2001.  252 pages.  Available at Sembach Library (JF NAI).

13-year-old Sade Solaja lives in Nigeria.  Her father is a journalist who dares to write the truth about the government.  One awful morning, her mother is shot and killed by bullets intended for her father.

Her family decides to send Sade and her younger brother to England for their protection, to the care of their uncle.  Papa will follow later.  They go on a plane with a lady who pretends to be their mother.

In England, their uncle has disappeared.  The lady abandons them.  What will they do?  Of course, Sade doesn’t trust the police, who are corrupt in her own country.  She doesn’t dare give her true name, since she is afraid that will endanger her father’s chances of getting out of Nigeria.

This is a powerful and moving book, based on actual situations in Nigeria.  This book won the 2000 Carnegie Award in England, and the child-voted Smarties Silver Medal.  This book broadens your scope by putting you into the shoes of refugees.  And it keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Another book by Beverley Naidoo:  Out of Bounds

Copyright © 2005 Sondra Eklund.  All rights reserved.

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