Boys Without Names
Balzer + Bray, 2010
Fiction
ISBN: 0061857602
320 pages
Synopsis
For eleven-year-old Gopal and his family, life in their rural Indian village is over: We stay, we starve, his baba has warned. With the darkness of night as cover, they flee to the big city of Mumbai in hopes of finding work and a brighter future. Gopal is eager to help support his struggling family until school starts, so when a stranger approaches him with the promise of a factory job, he jumps at the offer.
But Gopal has been deceived. There is no factory, just a small, stuffy sweatshop where he and five other boys are forced to make beaded frames for no money and little food. The boys are forbidden to talk or even to call one another by their real names. In this atmosphere of distrust and isolation, locked in a rundown building in an unknown part of the city, Gopal despairs of ever seeing his family again.
But late one night, when Gopal decides to share kahanis, or stories, he realizes that storytelling might be the boys’ key to holding on to their sense of self and their hope for any kind of future. If he can make them feel more like brothers than enemies, their lives will be more bearable in the shop—and they might even find a way to escape.
Critique
What can I say about Boys Without Names? It is such an amazing book, that I’m not sure describing it, or just using words like ‘moving,’ ‘poignant,’ and ‘beautifully painful’ really do it justice. It’s a simple yet profound story that everyone in America should read, not just teens. It’s important that we as a culture understand that many of the nice things that we want at a cheap price often come at an incredibly high price for someone else. Including becoming a slave.
Read it! Expand your worldview. Change your perspective on what it truly, tangibly means to have your clothes made in sweatshops in poorer countries around the world. Our rampant materialism is an oppressor to people in other nations, and we should have to account for it.
Other than the message Sheth so profoundly communicates, the world she creates is beautiful. I can feel the heat, smell all the amazing smells, and learn a great deal about Indian culture. I feel as if I am also one of those boys without names, working in the sweatshop, and through their experience of creating family and bonds, and reminded fondly of my own childhood. All the more reason that I want to step into the story and save these children from injustice, and punish those who are responsible for it.
It was everything I was hoping for and more, and I recommend that everyone read it.
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For the Classroom
This story would make a great classroom companion for studying social injustice throughout the world, especially as it pertains to children. It’s great for cultural studies, English, and general social commentary on the current state of our world. I believe that this is a must read for many younger teens because it will help to open their eyes regarding terrible things that are still happening throughout the world, even right now.
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[...] From Lindsey’s library: “I feel as if I am also one of those boys without names, working in the sweatshop, and through their experience of creating family and bonds, and reminded fondly of my own childhood…It was everything I was hoping for and more, and I recommend that everyone read it.“ http://www.lindseyslibrary.com/2010/01/boys-without-names/#more-1431 [...]
[...] 94% For my rating rubric, classroom applications, other recommendations and reviews please go to original posting on LindseysLibrary.com AKPC_IDS += "1522,"; Tagged: Boys Without Names Sponsor [...]