num_pages: 336
description: Two young boys must escape a life of slavery in modern-day Ivory CoastFifteen-year-old Amadou counts the things that matter. For two years what has mattered are the number of cacao pods he and his younger brother Seydou can chop down in a day. This number is very important. The higher the number the safer they are because the bosses wont beat them. The higher the number the closer they are to paying off their debt and returning home to Baba and Auntie. Maybe. The problem is Amadou doesnt know how much he and Seydou owe and the bosses wont tell him. The boys only wanted to make some money during the dry season to help their impoverished family. Instead they were tricked into forced labor on a plantation in the Ivory Coast; they spend day after day living on little food and harvesting beans in the hot sundangerous backbreaking work. With no hope of escape all they can do is try their best to stay aliveuntil Khadija comes into their lives. Shes the first girl whos ever come to camp and shes a wild thing. She fights bravely every day attempting escape again and again reminding Amadou what it means to be free. But finally the bosses break her and what happens next to the brother he has always tried to protect almost breaks Amadou. The old impulse to run is suddenly awakened. The three band together as family and try just once more to escape.
language: English
title: The Bitter Side of Sweet
publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers