ELA 9 – SOCIAL JUSTICE LITERATURE CIRCLES
NAME:
Book Title:
Summary:
1. The Heaven Shop
The plot of "The Heaven Shop" centers around 13 year old Binti, a girl from Malawi with
above-average socio-economic status for the country. Binti's mother had died from AIDS
about 6 years ago. Binti's father owns a coffin shop called The Heaven Shop, hence the title
of the book. Binti is a star on a radio show called "Gogo's Family" and helps support the
family with the money she earns through her work on the show. Binti's father, Bambo, is
infected with AIDS and contracts pneumonia due to his suppressed auto-immune system.
After Bambo dies, Binti and her siblings are placed in the care of her less wealthy relatives,
who take all of their belongings and force them to move to their homes. The rest of the
novel focuses on the hardships the siblings have to go through, and the effect one AIDSrelated death can have on a family.
Eddie, a young Mexican American, fights to make something of himself in Fresno,
California. Reeling from the death of his father, his best friend, and his cousin, he must
wage a constant battle against negative community influences (guns, drugs, lack of
opportunity, cultural stereotypes).
This is the powerful story of one girl's struggle for survival amid the African HIV/AIDS
pandemic a story of harsh realities and hard-won hopefulness. Chanda, 16, is a smart and
determined South African girl on track to win a scholarship – but she’s suddenly thrust into
an impossible situation, forcing her to adopt maturity beyond her years. When we first
meet her, she’s making funeral arrangements for her year-old sister, Sara. If people begin
to suspect Sara’s death was due to more than a passing flu, Chanda will be faced with shame
and stigma, not only for the victim, but also for their entire family.
2. Buried Onions
3. Chanda’s Secrets
Choice:
(1, 2, 3)
4. Throwaway
Daughter
5. Parvana’s Journey
6. Shattered
7. Offside
The protagonist, Grace Dong-mei Parker, was adopted from China by a caucasian Canadian
family in 1980. An orphanage worker gave the family a note left with the child that said her
name was "Dong-mei" and the mother's name was "Chun-mei." As a child, Grace rejects all
things Chinese because she believes she was unwanted by her birth family -- the
"throwaway daughter" of the title. She hates eating at Chinese restaurants, doesn't want to
learn Chinese, resents her adoptive mother calling her by her Chinese name. But when at
age 9 she unexpectedly sees the Tiananmen Square massacre on TV, her interest in her
Chinese heritage is awakened. Horrified, she sets out to explore her Chinese ancestry, only
to discover that she was one of the thousands of infant girls abandoned in China since the
introduction of the one-child policy, strictly enforced by the Communist government.
She and her ailing father have been searching the war-torn Afghan countryside for her
mother and three siblings, with whom they lost contact after the northern city of Mazar fell
to the ruling Taliban. As this gripping sequel opens, Parvana's father has suddenly died and
she is completely on her own for the first time. She can't even trust the kindness of
strangers for fear that they will discover the secret of her gender.
It starts out as a kid who goes to a homeless person soup kitchen (The Club) where he finds
a guy (called Mac) who runs the soup kitchen. He is from a very well off family and is only
there because he needs it to pass civics class, which he needs to get a new car from his dad
on his birthday. On the way there he cuts through Shelby Park where he meets a homeless
person and later is mugged. The homeless person then saves him. Mac runs the soup
kitchen alone usually and before he is told by Ian Blackburn (the main character) that he is
only there to get community service hours for (grade 10?) civics class he thinks Ian is just
another useless do-gooder. He works through the night and is exposed to homeless people
and develops a new respect for him.
Joel didn’t intend to get his hockey team, the Falcons, hooked on Sinus Minus, his wacky
stepmother’s favourite cold remedy. In fact, the guys, including his best friend Ryan, got
hooked on the stuff by accident. He never dreamed that they would develop a psychological
dependence on the stuff, but the Falcons can’t lose when Joel furnishes the team with the
Ziploc baggies of fine white powder. At first, Joel isn’t too concerned. After all, it’s just a
perfectly legal, over-the-counter cold medicine. But when Ryan’s mom tries to commit
suicide using a seemingly harmless drug, Joel knows that he has to wean the team off Sinus
Minus.