Born Behind Bars. Padma Venkatraman. 2021. [September] 272 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: Beyond the bars, framed by the high, square window, slides a small patch of sky. For months, it's been as gray as the faded paint flaking off the walls, but today it's blue and gold. Bright as a happy song. My thoughts, always eager to escape, shoot out and try to picture the whole sky--even the whole huge world. But my imagination has many missing pieces, like the jigsaw puzzle in the schoolroom. All I've learned here in nine years from my mother and my teachers is not enough to fill the gaps.
Premise/plot: Padma Venkatraman's newest middle grade novel opens in a prison (in Chennai, India). Kabir, our young hero, has spent his whole life--all nine years--in prison with his Amma (mom). He's friends with the other cellmates, his 'aunties,' and he loves, loves, loves his teacher. But though he's physically small for his age, he is past the age--technically speaking--of when he'd be allowed to stay with his mom in prison. So he's being released--without his mom--into the world. He's upset, anxious, and a tiny bit excited. What is the WORLD like? And where does he belong in it?
He looks at the world with WONDER and hope. He's heard stories, tales, even legends...but he's never lived "in the real world."
Born Behind the Bars mainly chronicles his time OUTSIDE bars. Readers join Kabir on his quest to find his paternal side of the family. (His mom was Hindu; his dad was Muslim). Can he find his dad? or his dad's family? Will he be welcomed into the family? Is there ANY way for him to 'save' his mom?
My thoughts: I would not want to read this story in the hands of any other author. But Venkatraman manages to tell this heavy story with hope and wonder. It's not that she scrubs out or erases the injustice and cruelty. It's that she's given Kabir the ability to see the world--in all its shades and colors--with hope. Yet at least to me Kabir does not come across as irritatingly naive like David Copperfield or Pinocchio.
I read this book in one sitting. I loved the short chapters. I breezed my way through this book with all the feels.
© 2021 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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