September 14, 2009
Pornography and prostitution, the fear of terrorism, desperate attempts to make a fast buck, social status and cross-cultural differences are all part of the equation in Philippine native Bobis's second novel (after Banana Heart Summer
). Manila's grim poverty is examined through the innocent eyes of Noland, a mute 10-year-old boy who sells beautiful paper lanterns on the street. The story begins with Noland and his friend Elvis competing for sales during the Christmas season. Their world changes when one evening a politically motivated drive-by shooting injures a young, beautiful American woman. Noland, inclined to fantasy, sees her as an angel and brings her to his home made of scraps, which nonetheless is magical, papered with pictures of stars and angels. His mother is furious: “Ay, ay, you good-for-nothing kids, always picking up trouble....” While the outside world searches for the missing tourist, a transformation is taking place inside the shack. Sparse poetic style and Bobis's strong feeling for Philippine culture and the dialect of Manila's poor lends a fable-like charm to the story, but there are too many worthy issues, none fully addressed.
October 1, 2009
Nena and Noland are eking out a living in the slums of Manila. Nena takes in laundry, and Noland makes star-shaped lanterns from colorful paper. Noland is a mute ten-year-old, but his buddy Elvis helps him sell the lanterns to drivers stuck in the heavy traffic around the city. Six days before Christmas, a drive-by shooting takes place, and an American is killed and his wife injured. Noland is there when it happens and takes the woman back to his hut to heal her. What begins as an innocent gesture ends in an international incident with accusations of terrorism, politics, and cover-up. In her second novel (after "Banana Heat Summer"), award-winning author Bobis plumbs the issues of third world poverty and American response, and if the results seem somewhat derivative, this is still a poignant work. VERDICT Readers who enjoyed the film "Slumdog Millionaire" will appreciate this novel.Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH
Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
December 1, 2009
Adult/High School-Readers are thrown headlong into the melee of the Manila slums at Christmastime with the most vulnerable of its inhabitants, six-year-old Noland and his friend, who are selling homemade lanterns to help put food on the table. Noland has filled the tiny shack he shares with his mother with hanging angels. Someone is shot, and the two boys take a bleeding woman in Noland's cart to his disabled mother for care. Everyone is looking for this American woman, and the government is using the boys as scapegoats, calling them terrorists. It is a corrupt world in which the government throws poor people away and poor children are at the mercy of pimps and fearful of their own neighbors. Slowly readers separate out the major players in this drama in which the refrain "I know a story you don't know" plays over and over as Noland and his mother try to forget how the boy's father was killed and the nightmare his death has made of their lives. If there was any doubt that the poor are used and abused, then thrown away, Bobis has dispelled it. This is a story that must be heard. Compare it to Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance" (Knopf, 2001), about beggars in India. A strong addition to readings for human-rights classes."Ellen Bell, Amador Valley High School, Pleasanton, CA"
Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.