.My middle school had a Scholastic Book Fair and, like the
bibliophile that I am, I went to do some shopping. Made selections,
checked out and as I was looking at my receipt I noticed at the bottom
an * and next to it a comment that said "This selection contains mature
content." Of course this one will be my first read then :) I scanned the
list of books to see what it was and laughed because the title was
Trash! I have had fun all week with my students making comments that I
am reading Trash :0
About the book: If you have ever seen Slumdog Millionaire think along those lines.
The story takes place in a poverty stricken country where families live
at the dump and scrounge through trash for items to resale. they live
at the dump that also has a makeshift school/church. Homes are built
from recycled finds...mainly old garage doors.
Children work
right along with their parent(s) searching the trash daily. One young
boy finds a bag containing a wallet, a letter and a key with a bright
yellow tag attached to it. The adventure begins as the police come
looking for this bag and the boy realizes how important the information
must be. He uses the resources he has available (church internet, street
smart loner boy and a teacher) to piece the pieces together to the
clues that are revealed to him. It is also told in the book that this
countries president has been robbed of six million dollars and the news
of this progresses into headlines questioning why anyone would have that
much money in their home.
Its a great read for boys and girls
alike. The author based it on a real scavenging dump he saw in Manila
and the secret code actually came from code used during WW2 I believe
Mature Content: I really had to look for it. The word shat is used for
toilet paper they find while sorting. There is also mention of bodies
that are thrown away of the poor who cannot pay the 5 year rent on
graves in the cemetery. Those bodies often make their way to the dump.
Mild compared to other YA I have read recently. I would say its great
for 7th and up.
