Hungry Ghosts by Sally Heinrich
This is another book that I finished when I was a long way from any Internet connection. As a result the review did not get written until now.
Sarah is a young girl from Singapore who is not happy with her parent’s decision to move to Australia. Her father is determined that the family will adapt quickly to Aussie customs, but mother is clinging to her Chinese culture. Sarah is caught in the middle, not happy in either place. But then at the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts, Sarah starts hearing voices. Are the voices real, or is the girl going mad?
In the process of telling this story Heinrich provides a great deal of historical information painlessly. The plight of early Chinese migrants to Australia is beautifully portrayed, and far more sensitively than in the Scholastic My Story series.
My one concern is the inconsistent voice from the Sarah. From the narration the I assumed that she was a young adolescent, facing all kinds of changes in her life, and this was only one more. However the story continually refers to the fact that Sarah is in year 11. I don’t think so.
July 27th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
i loved the bnook i am also a chinese girl so it was very cool to read something about chinses.
thank you for reading my comment