Set in Ethiopia, The Garbage King by Elizabeth Laird is a story about a poor boy called Mamo, running from a life of slave labour at a farm outside Addis Ababa. The book simultaneously tells the story of Dani, a boy from a wealthy bgproperties="fixed" BACKGROUND who runs away from home fearing punishment for shortcomings in his school work.

Although the plot is unoriginal and many of the characters are two-dimensional, the narrative is of high quality and at times even gripping. There are, however, many mistakes, which show that the author has not quite understood the situation about which she is writing. An example of this is when a character in the book, called Merga, comments on Mamo looking small for his age. This implies that Ethiopian street children are malnourished. However, as all children of that area are also malnourished, won’t Mamo look normal?

On the whole, the book portrays well the difference in wealth between the readers of the book and the street children of Ethiopia, although I am not convinced that it is likely that someone like Dani, who is wealthy but can see the suffering around him would run away from home over such a minor issue.

This book best suits the 7–11 age group.

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