Customer Reviews

The Street Children of Brazil: One Woman's Remarkable Story

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I have read this book twice now. It both inspires and challenges me. The way that God breaks into Sarah's life and turns it upside down is remarkable. One minute a succesful woman in TV, the next in a foreign country living in a favela (shanty town/slum). Amazing!
I find the book inspiring in the way that God changes her life and causes her to become a servant to the kids, by just loving and caring for them.
The way the book challenges me is in how I realise that we (myself included) can so easily read a book like this a do nothing more than feel sympathy for the kids and think of Sarah as a hero, when there are millions of children living on the streets around the world with no one to love or care for them. I thank God for people like Sarah & Joao, I just wish there were more of them to do what they do!
I would highly recommend this book.

In September, I will be moving to Brazil to begin my new career, working with the street children of Sao Paulo. This is the best and most captivating text that I have read on street children. It is not technical, so someone simply interested in finding out more about the hardships that the street children suffer; violence, abandonment, drugs, abuse, etc. would benefit from reading this text. It is an easy read and quick read. I reccomend it often!

After spending the first part of her working life in the media & television, Sarah has a number of profound experiences that change the direction of her life. Giving up her life in England, Sarah travels off to Brazil to help the street children.

Christians will find this book uplifting. However, agnostics beware, this book at times reads like a sermon which may antagonise if it is not read with an open mind. Whether or not you believe in God, there are certainly some interesting incidents which would lead you to believe that there is a higher force at work. Others may put this down to pure coincidence or general good luck.

Whatever your personal opinions on the beliefs of the author, the street children of Brazil are living in a 'hell on earth'. Drug trafficking, solvent abuse, sexual abuse & general violence are all part of their lives. The systems that Sarah & the other Christian volunteers have devised to help them seem to be working & although their constant preaching & praying throughout the book can be rather irritaing, towards the end you begin to realise that if they did not have such strong faith, they would probably not have been able to help these children with such extreme problems. The last chapter of the book has been given to the children to write thier own testimonies.

The authors faith has obviously played a huge part in shaping her life, however this unfortunately turns a promising book into one long sermon.