Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus
Written between 1955 and 1960,Child of the Darkis the daily journal of a artist, a writer who, as the single mother of three young children, supports her family by picking through garbage for paper and scraps to sell. They live in a cardboard and wood-scrap shack in a Brazilian slum called the "favela" where there is no plumbing and one public cold-water spigot is the only clean water source for several hundred people. Carolina wants her journal to document the lives "favelados" are forced to live. "July 24 "I got up at 5 o'clock to carry water." She often understates: "June 18 Today it dawned raining. Yesterday Vera spit two worms out of her mouth. She has a fever. There is no school today in honor of the Prince of Japan." Carolina de Jesus is a poet of intense dignity without physical or spiritual nourishment. "July 15 Today is the birthday of my daughter Vera Eunice. I can't give her a party for this would be just like trying to grab ahold of the sun with my hands. Today there's not going to be any lunch."  Her novels are rejected but her journal is accepted for publication in 1959 and eventually becomes very popular in Brazil. This makes her happy but does not immediately change her life: "January 1, 1960 I got up at 5 and went to get water."-- For great reviews of books for girls, check outLet's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. --From500 Great Books by Women; review by Jesse Larsen