BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3) - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: LOW
Two boys are in a charcoal yard, also there's a hornet with a nest and an egg that is apparently hungry. One night the boys are talking, one is smoking, they seem to argue over the cigarette and a fire starts. The next morning they are hiding on top of the big charcoal truck, one gets down but the other stays hidden and the truck leaves. The boy travels all day to where they make steel and he loses a key the other boy put in a box.
Charcoal Boys is about child labor in the charcoal mines of Brazil. Paper cut illustrations in blacks and grays (mostly) help tell this text heavy, detail light story. The narrator is the hornet. Mello has left a lot of holes, inviting his reader to fill in the gaps with their imagination. I would need a lot more context to connect with Charcoal Boys. It would be a hard sell, even to the middle school kids.
Lisa Librarian
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