Between Sisters

October 1, 2010

Gr 8 Up-Sixteen-year-old Gloria Bampo lives in Ghana and has just failed most of her exams. She can barely read or write English, thereby drastically limiting her options for the future. Her father is a staunch Christian and a deacon of the church, and no one will talk about her mother's serious illness. Gloria's sister, Effie, seems to have a secret life complete with a sailor boyfriend. When Gloria is offered the chance to work for a rich female doctor as a housekeeper and nanny, she is introduced to the nicer things in life. But circumstances get complicated quickly with new clothes, new friends, and a doctor's attentions all creating their own temptations. The story provides a fascinating glimpse into a culture, but, unfortunately, does not grow from there. The characters are somewhat static and the introduction of concern about the AIDS epidemic of the early 1990s is forced. The pace of the novel is rather quick with problems introduced and then solved within a few pages only, which may, in part, be due to the clipped and bare-bones language. The conclusion of the story, as well, does not offer much resolution as the biggest conflicts are not really dealt with.-Naphtali L. Faris, Saint Louis Public Library, MO

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 15, 2010
Ghanaian teenager Gloria Bampo has hit a rough patch. She failed most of her school exams, her long-unemployed father has lost himself to religion and her mother is ravaged by a mysterious sickness. Her one consolation, her older sister Effie, has discovered boys and all but disappeared. Gloria is offered a job in a distant city with Christine, a doctor who needs househelp. Her father is quick to assent, with one condition: In lieu of payment, Christine must take responsibility for Gloria's future and adopt her as a sister. Gloria adjusts easily, studies hard and explores her newfound freedom. But when the temptations of her new life—brand-name clothes and handsome doctors—prove hard to resist, a misunderstanding cuts a rift between Gloria and Christine. Each must confront class stereotypes and re-examine the meaning of family. Badoe's sharp and engaging prose unfolds the story with spryness, deftly navigating readers through heady social issues. But she wastes readers' goodwill at the end with a conclusion both haphazard and overly moralistic, jarringly out of place in this otherwise thoughtful and well-excuted novel. (Ghanaian glossary) (Fiction. YA)

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October 1, 2010
Grades 8-12 The new royalty are the educated. When Gloria Bampo, a 16-year-old student in Accra, Ghana, fails her high-school exam once again, she is overcome with shame and sorrow. She keeps the secret that she cant read from her father, who is unemployed, and her mother, who has a mysterious illness. Then her parents send Gloria to another city to work as a nanny and housekeeper for a kind physician, Christine, who teaches Gloria to read. As she develops friends and enemies, and explores love and sex, she also learns about AIDS, the disease no one talks about. Is that what her mother has? The author, a Ghanaian physician now living in Canada, vividly evokes the contemporary setting of middle-class Ghana, including the truth about those who dream of leaving for Europe, where many immigrants find that they are unwelcome. The huge cast of characters threatens to overwhelm the story, but the betrayals, quarrels, misunderstandings, and secrets are universal, and so is the friendship, romance, and compassion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2011
Dr. Christine hires Gloria as her son's nanny in Kumasi. Gloria enjoys the work, but Christine wants her to aspire to more. Unfortunately, Gloria believes she can only become Somebody by marrying up. This honest glimpse of one adolescent is as particular to the well-detailed Ghanaian setting as it is universal in subject and theme. Glos.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2010
Living in Accra, Ghana, sixteen-year-old Gloria divides the world into Somebodies and Nobodies, with Somebodies being those who have money and Nobodies being poor and hopeless, like her. Gloria can barely read and write; her mother is sick, possibly with AIDS; and her father is unemployed. So, when a successful young doctor asks her to work as her nanny in Kumasi, Gloria accepts. She enjoys the work: playing with Dr. Christine's young son, cooking, and meeting new friends. Christine, however, wants Gloria to aspire to more. As she tells (and occasionally overtells) Gloria, "It is a smart girl who makes up her mind early who she is going to be and what it takes to be that person." Unfortunately, Gloria lacks that vision; she believes she can only become Somebody by marrying up. So, when the smooth and sophisticated Dr. Kwabena Kusi secretly pursues her, she questions his motives but, wanting to please, is helpless to defy him. Self-respect comes hard to girls whether they live in Ghana or America. This honest glimpse of one adolescent is as particular to the well-detailed West African setting as it is universal in subject and theme. A glossary of Ghanaian terms is appended. betty carter

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)