The Garbage King is the story of two boys on the run in Ethiopia. Mamo is a homeless poor boy, running away from a life of slave labour. Dani comes from a rich family, but he is running away from his grand home because his father is evil and his mother has died.

Soon, Mamo and Dani become friends, and help each other to survive their terrible ordeals.

I would recommend this book to people aged 11 or 12 because, although it is very serious, it isn’t particularly hard to read, especially as Elizabeth Laird has put in a handy glossary to help with the words which are particularly relevant to Ethiopia. However, I do not know whether she really needed to put in the glossary; I think it may have been an easy way out of describing the items in the actual story.

Over all it is a good book, yet in places it was quite boring and I found it quite hard to get into. I think one of the reasons I did not enjoy it as much as I could have was because it was very serious and personally I prefer either comical books, or books in which I can relate to the characters.

I give this book 5 out of 10 and having read a few of the other short-listed books, I do not think The Garbage King has a great chance of success.

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