Lived in South America...

books:

	• I Am a Taxi (The Cocalero Novels) Deborah Ellis Groundwood Books, 2008 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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Lived in South America...

This book is an interesting and engrossing read. I'm not certain that younger readers (for which the cover, in particular, seems to be aimed)will "get" it, but the action makes for quite a page-turner, and the subject matter is very thought provoking. The author includes some anti-American and anti-religion undertones which I find a bit annoying, and although she does explain that the cocaine extraction process is different from the coca tea itself, the reader is left cheering for the humble coca farmers. Once again, I hope youthful readers make the distinctions, and that the "bad guy" is cocaine use and not necessarily the U.S. In any case, this book could be a great read-aloud, and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

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For twelve-year-old Diego and his family, home is the San Sebastian Women?s Prison in Cochabamba, Bolivia. His parents farmed coca, a traditional Bolivian medicinal plant, until they got caught in the middle of the government?s war on drugs. Diego?s adjusted to his new life. His parents are locked up, but he can come and go: to school, to the market to sell his mother?s hand-knitted goods, and to work as a ?taxi," running errands for other prisoners. But then his little sister runs away, earning his mother a heavy fine. The debt and dawning realization of his hopeless situation make him vulnerable to his friend Mando?s plan to make big money, fast. Soon, Diego is deep in the jungle, working as a virtual slave in an illegal cocaine operation. As his situation becomes more and more dangerous, he knows he must take a terrible risk if he ever wants to see his family again.

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