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Spilled Water Sally Grindley Bloomsburg Publication © 2004 |
The book, Spilled Water by Sally
Grindley, is about a girl name Lu Si-yan and her hardships. In the beginning,
it flips from the present to the past, describing her life with her father in
the past, and how her uncle was selling her at the market in the present. She
is bought by a rich family, where she is forced to be their slave and
eventually marry their son, who happens to be mentally challenged. She runs
away with the intent of returning home, but ends up employed in an awful toy
factory instead. When she falls ill, nearly a year after being sold, her uncle
comes for her, with the horrible news that her mother is dead, and that he has
come to take her home. But, even though she resents him for selling her in the
first place, she has changed greatly and, even though she is only 12, she is
already grown in so many ways.
At first glance, it might not seem interesting,
but it's actually a great book. This is really one of those books that you
shouldn't judge by its cover. It makes you feel her pain as she struggles to
belong in a world that never really accepts a girl. Lu Si-yan is amazing,
especially for a girl so young. Even though she faces constant problems in her
homeland of China, she finds a way to find the river that takes her home.
The people most interested in this book would
more than likely be 8th and 9th grade girls. They would enjoy the simplicity
yet overwhelming type used in this book.
~ Ashleigh Schmidt, grade 9, Youngstown Early College