Spilled Water [Paperback]

Sally Grindley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2005

When her husband dies, Lu Si-yan's mother is encouraged to sell her young daughter into domestic service. Lu Si-yan is just eleven when sold by her uncle. Nearly two years will pass before she can get back home to her mother and brother. In this powerful and compelling novel Sally Grindley portrays the life of a young girl in China, a young girl whose life is said to be like 'spilled water'. With a brilliant first-person narrative and a powerful description of time and place, this novel is gripping, heart-wrenching and utterly mesmerising.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-7–As a young girl in rural China, Lu Si-yan grows up with two loving parents and a younger brother. Her father farms their land and fishes to provide for the family After her father dies, Lu Si-yan struggles to keep her family fed but cant manage when her mother becomes ill. Her uncle decides the best he can do is sell the 11-year-old into domestic service. Lu Si-yan realizes that her life is like spilled water–a waste. An upper-class family for whom she must cook and clean purchases the girl. She is kept locked in their apartment, but escapes when she realizes they plan to marry her to their mentally retarded son. As she attempts to return home to her family, Lu Si-yans money is stolen and she becomes indebted to a couple that owns a large factory. While working to pay off her debt and making friends, her longing to return home is still evident. It takes an almost deathly illness to bring help from Uncle. Liz Sutherland does a wonderful job of reading this novel by Sally Grindley (Bloomsbury, 2004). She gives each character a unique voice and Chinese accent, from Uncles curt tone to the voices of Lu Si-yans friends in the factory. An excellent addition for classes studying China or the exploitation of factory workers, and for world cultures collections in public libraries.–Lisa Baker, Chocowinity Middle School, NC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

From Booklist

Gr. 5-7. Set in contemporary China, this first^B novel tells a story of child labor and a young girl wrenched from home. When her loving father dies and hardship hits the farm, Lu Si-Yan, 11, is sold by her uncle as an indentured servant and future bride to a city family ("What else is a girl good for?"). She runs away, only to be trapped as a factory laborer, sewing toys at starvation wages on the assembly line in a stifling, noisy workplace. She finds kindness as well as cruelty in the factory, especially among older fellow workers, and she eventually makes it back home, though there is no happy-ever-after ending. Sometimes the child's first-person narrative sounds more like an account from an experienced reporter than the story of country kid, and the river metaphor of Lu Si-Yan's journey home is overdone. But the direct prose unfurls the story of a girl regarded as no more than "spilled water" in a way that will reach older readers as well as the novel's target audience. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens Books (June 6, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747571465
• ISBN-13: 978-0747571469
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,761,832 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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