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Title details for Boys Without Names by Kashmira Sheth - Available

Boys Without Names

by Kashmira Sheth
Neil Shah
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
Trapped.
For eleven-year-old Gopal and his family, life in their rural Indian village is over: We stay, we starve, his baba has warned. With the darkness of night as cover, they flee to the big city of Mumbai in hopes of finding work and a brighter future. Gopal is eager to help support his struggling family until school starts, so when a stranger approaches him with the promise of a factory job, he jumps at the offer.
But Gopal has been deceived. There is no factory, just a small, stuffy sweatshop where he and five other boys are forced to make beaded frames for no money and little food. The boys are forbidden to talk or even to call one another by their real names. In this atmosphere of distrust and isolation, locked in a rundown building in an unknown part of the city, Gopal despairs of ever seeing his family again.
But late one night, when Gopal decides to share kahanis, or stories, he realizes that storytelling might be the boys' key to holding on to their sense of self and their hope for any kind of future. If he can make them feel more like brothers than enemies, their lives will be more bearable in the shop—and they might even find a way to escape.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 5, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781705284599
      • File size: 247406 KB
      • Duration: 08:35:25

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 670
    • Text Difficulty: 3

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 21, 2009
      When 11-year-old Gopal's family tries to escape crushing debt by leaving their village in India for his uncle's home in Mumbai, Gopal is eager to help earn money, especially after his father disappears. Gopal is fooled by the promise of a factory job and ends up a slave in a small shack with five other boys he must nickname because none is allowed to say his name. Suffering a under a cruel boss, Gopal slowly unites the boys though storytelling, with each boy reclaiming his past and his name. Sheth's (Keeping Corner
      ) lush prose (“It is as if someone has rubbed this rough sack on my heart over and over again and made it bleed”) creates a vivid portrait of slave labor without losing the thread of hope that Gopal clings to. Though certain lines of dialogue seem improbable (“The promise was like a rose, but what I got was one big thorn of a boss”), the characters are strong and believable, with Gopal being particularly relatable. The happy ending may be slightly unrealistic but nonetheless satisfies. Ages 9–12.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:670
  • Text Difficulty:3

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