The Other Side of Truth

Starred review from December 23, 2002

Twelve-year-old-Sade must flee her native Nigeria with her younger brother—after their mother is killed in a shooting intended for her father—and must learn quickly how to fight for what she holds dear. In a starred review, PW
called it a "sophisticated and emotional novel, poignant and accessible." Ages 10-up.

Starred review from September 17, 2001
Sade, the 12-year-old protagonist of Naidoo's sophisticated and emotional novel, must flee her native Nigeria with her younger brother after their mother is killed in a shooting. Their father, a muckraking journalist in trouble with the military government, was the target. Sade and 10-year-old Femi soon find themselves stranded in London, abandoned by the woman paid to smuggle them into the country, and at the mercy of mostly friendly, but foreign government agencies, foster families and teachers. Her father finally surfaces in England, only to be detained for illegally emigrating. Sade must learn quickly how to fight for what she holds dear, including her father's safety. The inclusion of real facts about African countries, such as the government's execution of Nigerian activist writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, makes Naidoo's story more poignant, while the immediacy of the parallel story, in which Sade must deal with similar obstacles on a smaller scale (e.g., powerful school gangs), makes the novel more accessible. Fashbacks, letters written between father and daughter, and Sade's constant memories of her mother's sayings, add texture. Readers may be challenged by some of the British English, but they will find it easy to understand Sade's joy at reuniting with her father in prison, and likely find her determination exhilarating. Ages 10-up.

September 24, 2001
With Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural theory as a framework, Berk offers a consistent way of thinking about child rearing in the face of the flurry of fickle advice available to today's harried parents. Her accessible and practical book is firmly grounded in the latest research on child development and provides an effective antidote for those skeptical of the current emphasis on academics in primary schooling. Rejecting the notion that parents have little influence on their children, Berk, a 30-year veteran in the field, illustrates the importance of "scaffolding" (building an understanding union between teacher and student), make-believe play and "private speech" (aka talking to oneself). She emphasizes the paramount importance of literacy, since being able to converse, read and write creates unlimited learning opportunities. A chapter on children with disabilities and deficits insists upon their full integration into social life, otherwise they risk adding a "cultural deficit" to their existing condition. Armed with the research data on which Berk's vision is based, parents with the time to talk to their children's educators might be able to bring about necessary change. Unfortunately, the reality of ideological and economic obstacles to outstanding early childhood education in the U.S., where Berk says the overall quality of child care is among the industrialized world's worst, means that such progressive and informed thinking as this book contains will likely remain only an ideal.

September 1, 2001
Gr 5-8-With political insight, sensitivity, and passion, Naidoo presents the harrowing story of two Nigerian children caught in the civil strife of their beloved homeland in the mid-1990s. Eighth-grader Sade Solaja and her fifth-grade brother, Femi, are hastily stowed out of Nigeria after their mother is shot and killed by assassins' bullets meant for their outspoken journalist father. The children are abandoned in London and are unable to locate their uncle, a university professor who has been threatened and has gone into hiding. Picked up first by the police and then by immigration authorities, the youngsters remain silent, afraid to reveal their true names and background. They are placed in a foster home where kindness does not relieve their loneliness and alienation. School is a frightening plunge into Western culture, relaxed discipline, ethnic harassment, and peer intimidation. When their father, who has illegally entered the country, contacts them from a detention center, the children are jubilant. However, their excitement is overshadowed by his imprisonment and subsequent hunger strike. Sade enacts a plan to tell "Mr. Seven O'Clock News" her father's story. Public attention and support follow, prompting his release. Tension and hope alternately drive the story as Sade and Femi grapple with an avalanche of decisions, disappointments, and discoveries. Traditions temper Sade's despair as she remembers times at Family House in Ibadan, and her mother's quiet admonition to be true to yourself. Through these compelling characters, Naidoo has captured and revealed the personal anguish and universality of the refugee experience.-Gerry Larson, Durham School of the Arts, NC

Copyright 2001 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2002
In 1995 Lagos, Nigeria, twelve-year-old Sade's mother is shot to death by gunmen aiming for Sade's journalist father. To ensure his children's safety, her father arranges false identities and sends Sade and her younger brother to London. This scrupulously well-observed narrative stays snug inside Sade's head, giving scenes immediacy and vividness. The book honors its political and ethical engagements and succeeds as a first-rate escape-adventure story as well. Glos.

(Copyright 2002 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from September 1, 2001
r. 6-10. Like Naidoo's best-selling " Journey to Jo'burg" (1986), this story humanizes contemporary politics through the eyes of a child. On the first page Sade Solaja, 12, sees her mother shot dead outside their home in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1995. The soldiers really wanted to kill Sade's papa, an outspoken journalist. The next day Sade and her younger brother, Femi, 10, must board a plane and flee with false papers and false names to London. The arrangements in England fall through, and the children find themselves alone on the cold streets of the huge unknown city. Eventually, the welfare office finds them a kind foster home, but always there's the chance that Papa will be assassinated before he can join them in England. Meanwhile, Sade must go to school and live with her grief and fear. Part survival adventure, part docudrama, the narrative stays true to Sade's viewpoint, whether she's remembering what she left behind, trying to care for her nearly silent brother, or coping with the bullies at her new school ("Don't need to spell in the bush," they jeer at her, though her English is better than theirs). The school cruelty is almost unbearable to read; so is the heartbreaking reunion with Papa in a London prison ("in a great arc, his arms swept up the children"). And there's no simple upbeat resolution: Papa is right ("bad men succeed when the rest of us look away"), and yet, because Papa wrote the truth, Mama is dead. Winner of the British Carnegie Medal, this powerful novel brings the news images very close by showing how anyone can become part of those winding lines of refugees.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)