The Garbage King
| Author | Elizabeth Laird |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Yosef Kebeide |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children novel |
Publication date | 2003 |
| Publication place | Great Britain, United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 329 |
| ISBN | 978-0-7641-5679-3 |
The Garbage King is a children's fiction book written by Elizabeth Laird and illustrated by Yosef Kebede.
Laird was inspired to write the book after living and working in Ethiopia, where, in Addis Ababa, she saw children who lived on the streets who had inspiring abilities to cope with difficult living conditions.[citation needed] It has received numerous British book awards.
Plot summary
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (October 2011) |
It tells the story of Mamo and Dani. Mamo is from a very poor family where everyone has died except for him and his sister, Tiggist. Mamo is kidnapped by a slave trader who claims to be his Uncle Merga. "Merga" takes Mamo far from the city and sells him to a cruel farmer and his wife.
Dani comes from a rich and privileged family in a prosperous part of Addis Abbaba. His father, however, wants him to send him away to make him learn something useful and toughen up. Dani's mother is sick and flew to London, England, to receive better medical care. Dani runs away to escape his father. At the same time, Mamo escapes from the farmer and hitchhikes back to Addis Ababa, and hides in a graveyard where he meets Dani who is also hiding there. They form an unexpected alliance and together join a gang of beggar street boys. The gang members share a strict code of sharing whatever they obtain. Mamo becomes "the garbage king" because he is an expert at finding treasures in rubbish heaps. Dani writes stories which the others sell for money. Mamo tries to sell a story to a schoolteacher that turns out to be one of Dani's old teachers, Ato Mesfin. Ato Mesfin recognizes Dani's handwriting, and approaches Dani's father, Ato Paulos hoping for a reward.
Ato Mesfin and Ato Paulos learn of the boys' pitch to sell their stories by talking with homeless street people who know Dani. Eventually they find Dani and his gang, and Ato Paulos is angry that his son left a prosperous home to become a street beggar.
Dani returns home with his father once he hears his mother is recovering, and that she will soon return home. Mamo sets off to find his sister, and learns she now lives with a new husband. When they reunite, Tiggist is happy to have her younger brother back,although she is ashamed of what he has become (a beggar). The two boys remain friends and provide food and new clothes for their old gang members.
Awards
The novel has won numerous awards, including the Scottish Arts Council Children's Book of the Year Award.It even won the Stockport Schools Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, the Blue Peter Book Awards, the Salford Children's Book Award, the Calderdale Children's Book Award, the Lincolnshire Young People's Book Award, the Stockton Children's Book of the Year, the West Sussex Children's Book Award, the Portsmouth Book Award and the Sheffield Children's Book Award.[citation needed] .