Trash by Andy Mulligan

.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.