By: Deborah Ellis Publisher: Fitzhenry and Whiteside Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Fitzhenry and Whiteside Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 186 Publication Date: October 17, 2007 Reading Level: Young Adult
There is a lion in our village, and it is carrying away our children.
At her father's funeral, Binti's grandmother utters the words that no one in Malawi wants to hear. Binti's father and her mother before him, dies of AIDS. Binti, her sister, and brother are separated and sent to the home of relatives who can barely tolerate their presence. Ostracized by their extended family, the orphans are treated like the lowest servants. With her brother far away and her sister wallowing in her own sorrow, Binti can hardly contain her rage. She, Binti Phirim, was once a child star of a popular radio program. Now she is scraping to survive. Binti always believed she was special, now she is nothing but a common AIDS orphan.
Binti Phiri is not about to give up. Even as she clings to hope that her former life will be restored, she must face a greater challenge. If she and her brother and sister are to reunited, Binti Phiri will have to look outside herself and find a new way to be special.
Compelling and uplifting, The Heaven Shop, is a contemporary novel that puts a very real face on the African AIDS pandemic, which to-date has orphaned more than 11 million African children. Inspired by a young radio performer the author met during her research visit to Malawi, Binti Phiri is a compelling character that readers will never forget.
Awards and Nominations:
Ontario Library Association's Golden Oak Award winner 2006
Winner of the 2005 Jane Addams Children's Book Award in the category of Honor Books for Older Children
Shortlisted for the 2006 Alberta Children's Choice Book Award
A Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Awards Honour Book for 2006
Foreword Magazine 2004 Book of the Year Award finalist
A Children's Africana Book Awards (CABA) 2005 Honor Book for Older Readers
A Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice 2005
Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award for Young Adult/Middle Reader Books finalist
The heaven Shop- Retell by Sana Khan The heaven Shop, By Deborah Ellis is about a 13- year old girl, Binti Phiri who works at a popular radio show called, "Gogo's Family," to help earn for the family. Binti lives with her brother, Kwasi, her older sister, Junie and her father, who earns money for the family by making coffins at his shop, The Heaven Shop. Binti's mother had died of AIDS when Binti was a child. As a responsible and typical child, Binti is shocked to hear her father has also passed away, because of the same horrible disease: AIDS. Now, Binti is only an AIDS orphan, separated from her Kwasi and forced to live with her Uncle Wysom and Aunt Agnes. Junie's fiancé's, Noel, breaks up their engagement because as said by Noel her family had been "tainted by AIDS." At Binti's new home she and her sister are treated worse than slaves and are forced to give up all their belongings to Aunt Agnes' daughters. Leaving school, Junie runs away from her new home at the urge of finding a new job and leaves a note commanding Binti to go to her Gogo (grandma) who is looking after a group of AIDS orphans and young homeless people (pg. 105). Once again at a new home, Binti meets 13 year old Memory, who already has a child due to Memory's uncle (an HIV positive), who thought raping a virgin will cure AIDS. Binti learns her sister had become a prostitute at one point (pg. 169) and takes help from Jeremiah, an HIV positive man, who helps Binti, find Junie (now HIV Positive) and Kwasi. Kwasi, Junie, Memory and Binti now start a profitable business of coffins to help improve the condition of the AIDS orphanage. They name their business, The Heaven Shop.
The Heaven Shop by Deborah Ellis This book is about a girl Binti, living in Malawi in Africa. Her mother died from a disease called Aids. She comes a poor family. She has a brother Kwasi, sister Junnie and her father in her family Every Saturday she goes to her radio studio and earns some money for the family. Her father runs a coffin shop, which is called "The Heaven Shop."
When her father dies of Aids she has only enough money to pay for his funeral. But when her grandmother Gogo says that her father died of Aids she is treated badly by all her relatives. Her whole family is split apart and Binti vows that she will find her brother who as been sent away to their Aunt. But from now on Binti is sent to live with her Aunt and Uncle who are incredibly rude and obnoxious and will not go near her just in case she might have Aids. Their children play horrible tricks on her. She gets hit with a fly swatter almost every day. "No!" she said that was enough so Binti and her sister decide to run away. But her sister has to find work and Binti has to go on her own to Grandmother Gogo's house.
Binti has to find her way to safety but without her sister or her brother. It's very hard for her and she has to face many challenges. When she gets to grandmother Gogo's house she meets a girl who has Aids. She didn't get treated differently because of her positive attitude and she wouldn't let herself feel different to anyone else. So I think the moral of the story is no matter how different the person may look or if they have a disease or anything that makes them different you should always treat them the same "Treat others the way you would like to be treated."
My favorite quote in this book was from grandmother Gogo it is "In the old days, when there were still lions around, if a lion came into our village and carry away our young, we did not keep silent! If we were silent it would keep eating our children we had to make noise. We banged pots and yelled, there is a lion in the village! Then we could get rid of the lion and save our children. There is a lion in our village now. It's called AIDS. It carries away our children and our adults."
This is a very gripping book and it is very intense you will never want to put it down. It carries you away to another world. Here we are thinking that a holiday is fun and there they are thinking that getting some food is amazing! When you compare your life to theirs it makes you think how lucky you are and it makes you appreciate your life and the world around you.
How would you feel if you had AIDS and you were treated differently to others? I can tell you that. I would feel awful. I would feel as though I've been thrown into a ditch and left there. But like Binti and Memory I would pick myself up and carry on and not let myself or anyone make me feel different or be treated differently.
By: Rima (New Zealand)
A WONDERFUL BOOK!!!! The story of Binti a young radio actress. She has no mother and her father dies. Her family is split between relatives, can she get them together again? A wonderful book. I gives you a childs point of veiw of the aids crisis. It is well written and apropriate for children and adults alike.
A Truly Amazing Book!!! This book is about a girl named Binti. Her father owns a shop called the Heaven Shop. Her mother died of a disease called Aids. Binti works for a radio show called Gogo's family. then her father dies of Aids. Her sister and her brother loose everything. Her sister and Binti go to their Uncle's,where they work in the bar that they own. Their brother on the other hand got to their Aunts where he gets caught stealing and gets sent to jail.He only stole the food because they were starving him, he was better feed in the jail.Everyhting goes to their releatives, they manage to save alot of money and then of course they find it. Binti and her sister escape and got in search for their grandmother, Gogo. Her sister takes of elsewhere. Later she comes back HIV positive. Binti meets a girl her age Miracle that has AIDS and is still strong. She even has a baby with AIDS. in the end they all get united. t didn't matter that her sister was HIV positive and that their parents both die of AIDS. When you read this book it will take you on an adventure that discovers that it doesn't matter if you have AIDS or your HIV positive, just live your life to the fullest because you never know when it might end. Your still the same person inside whether you have a disease or not.Trust me you will not want to put this book down i know i didn't.Go ahead take a chance read it it will truly change the way you think about something.
Heaven Shop!!! Hey i loved reading the boook Heven Shop, I never wanted to put it down it rocked it was so fantasicing!!! I have loved all of your books that I have read!!! Carly.....13yrs Ontario
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