num_pages: 208
description: For twelve-year-old Diego and his family, home is the San Sebastian Women’s Prison in Cochabamba, Bolivia. His parents farmed coca, a traditional Bolivian medicinal plant, until they got caught in the middle of the government’s war on drugs. Diego’s adjusted to his new life. His parents are locked up, but he can come and go: to school, to the market to sell his mother’s hand-knitted goods, and to work as a “taxi," running errands for other prisoners. But then his little sister runs away, earning his mother a heavy fine. The debt and dawning realization of his hopeless situation make him vulnerable to his friend Mando’s plan to make big money, fast. Soon, Diego is deep in the jungle, working as a virtual slave in an illegal cocaine operation. As his situation becomes more and more dangerous, he knows he must take a terrible risk if he ever wants to see his family again.
language: English
title: I Am a Taxi
titlecomplete: I Am a Taxi (The Cocalero Novels)
genres: Family, Fiction, Bolivia, Canada, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult, Childrens, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Cultural
ratings_count: 1338
places: Bolivia
series: Cocalero Novels
awards: awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award
category: Adult Middle Reader, awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award
publisher: Groundwood Books