Maw Books

Maw Books – book reviews, book recommendations, book lists, author interviews and more!

I have fallen in love with Deborah Ellis this year.  I loved The Breadwinner, Parvana’s Journey, and Mud City, which I read earlier this year about children in Afghanistan.  The Heaven Shop by Deborah Ellis didn’t disappoint me.  The copy that I read was the cover on the left, but I love the cover on the right.  It has more of an African flare.

In The Heaven Shop, which takes place in Malawi, Binti is very proud.  She’s thirteen and already has a “real” job acting on a show called Gogo’s Family on the radio.  Her role is popular and she always makes sure that when she walks home everybody can see the script.  Her father runs a coffin shop called The Heaven Shop, which is always busy because of many AIDS deaths.  But slowly it becomes more and more difficult for him to run because he spends more and more time in bed.  Soon Binti, her brother and sister are planning their own father’s funeral.

From the book jacket:

At her father’s funeral, Binti’s grandmother says the words that no one in Malawi wants to hear.  Binti’s father, and her mother before him, died of AIDS.  Binti, her sister and brother are split up and sent to the homes of relatives who can barely tolerate their presence.  Ostracized by their extended family, the orphans are treated like the lowest servents.  With her brother far away and her sister wallowing in her own sorrow, Binti can hardly contain her rage.  She, Binti Phiri, was the child star of a popular radio program.  Now she is scraping to survive.  Binti always believed she was special.  Now she is nothing but a common AIDS orphan.

Binti Phiri is not about to give up.  Even as she clings to hope that her former life will be restored, she must face the greatest challenge.  If she and her brother and sister are ever to be together again, Binti Phiri will have to look outside herself and find a new way to be special.

The Heaven Shop is a great introduction for children to learn about AIDS and it’s effects upon the many orphaned children in Africa.  The author’s note at the end of the book gives a brief but great summary of AIDS in Africa.  According to it, more than thirteen million children in Sub-Saharan Africa have lost their parents to AIDS.  The number of these “AIDS orphans” is expected to double by 2010 (next year!).  AIDS spreads among when when they are raped, forced into prostitution, governments spend health care and eduction dollars on weapons and soldiers.  Poverty also spreads AIDS when basic nutrition and medicine are beyond the reach of many.  As Deborah Ellis says, “We may not have a cure for AIDS and HIV – yet.  But we can take action to prevent war and alleviate poverty.

Binti’s journey is one that you’ll want to take.  I loved watching her transformation from a proud, selfish child, being humbled as a orphan, and rising above her circumstances to help those around her.  I highly recommend The Heaven Shop for great insight on such a troubling subject.

The book also includes an interview with the author.  Royalties from The Heaven Shop will be donated to Unicef.

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