There Are Some Children Here

This book is one that I won’t easily forget; it tells one girl’s story across two different worlds–the first a shantytown in Zimbabwe and the second in suburban Detroit. The story begins as Darling and her friends explore their neighborhoods as well as wealthier enclaves that border them. They are poor and hungry and chock full of American cultural touchstones and attitude. They sometimes discuss the time before–when they went to school and lived in houses–before the military came–but mostly they play in the world they find themselves in.

However this is also a story of immigration and alienation when a few years later, Darling gets the chance to go live with her Aunt in suburban Detroit. On the one hand, she is amazed at all the “things” she has access to, but Darling also begins to realize what she has left behind.

This book is funny but also deadly serious, bubbly but tragic, and all through Darling’s voice shines through.