Chanda's Secrets

Children's Literature

When Chandra's little sister Sara dies, it prompts Chandra to discover a horrible truth that must be kept secret: members of her family have AIDS. In the town where she lives in Africa, no one talks about AIDS. All the deaths in the community are instead attributed to cancer, tuberculosis, even hunting accidents. Everyone is affected by this epidemic, however: from Chandra's friend Esther, who has turned to prostitution to support herself and her siblings after her parents die, to Chandra herself, who was molested by one of her stepfathers years ago. When Chandra's mother disappears, leaving Chandra to care for her siblings with the help of a nosy neighbor, Chandra forces the community to confront the reality of the disease. While Stratton's depiction of AIDS in Africa is gripping and heartbreaking, the ending seems forced, overly happy, and, based on the rest of the book, unrealistic. Nevertheless, this book should become required reading in schools to educate children about the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Clark's line drawings at each chapter are sparse yet give a sense of a world that, otherwise, might be difficult for the average American child to comprehend. 2004, Annick Press, Ages 12 up.
—Amie Rose Rotruck

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-Chanda, 16, remembers the good times, when she lived with both parents on a cattle post in sub-Saharan Africa and even later on when her family moved to Bonang. Her family's troubles began after her father was killed in the diamond mines. Her first stepfather abused her; the second died of a stroke; the third is a drunken philanderer. Although Chanda lives in a world in which illness and death have become commonplace, it is not one in which AIDS can be mentioned. The horror and desperation of families facing this disease is brought home when her latest stepfather's sister dumps the dying man in front of their shantytown house. Before Chanda can get help from the hospital caseworker, he disappears and the wagon that brought him is burned. Her mother leaves to visit her family on the cattle post and Chanda is forced to give up her dream of further education to care for her younger sister and brother. Slowly she comes to realize that her mother has AIDS, and that she might be infected herself. But Chanda's education serves her well as she faces the disease head-on. In a sad but satisfying ending, she rescues her mother so that she can die at home and she and her siblings get themselves tested. Smart and determined, Chanda is a character whom readers come to care for and believe in, in spite of her almost impossible situation. The details of sub-Saharan African life are convincing and smoothly woven into this moving story of poverty and courage, but the real insight for readers will be the appalling treatment of the AIDS victims. Strong language and frank description are appropriate to the subject matter.-Kathleen Isaacs, Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The subject of AIDS in contemporary Africa receives powerful-though apolitical-treatment. When 16-year-old Chanda's baby sister dies, the middle siblings are told that she went "on a trip." Lies and secrets obscure death and suppress every hint of AIDS, which is running rampant through this small city. AIDS lurks everywhere, but so do the shame and social death of acknowledging it. Chanda's Mama is slowly weakening and Chanda's best friend has turned to prostitution, making the spread of HIV ever harder to ignore. Chanda's slow rebellion against all the secrecy comes at a dear price, but the end is not without hope, at least for her and the young siblings who've become her "babies." Stratton pulls his punches by setting this in a fictional country and failing to ever mention any governmental (or corporate/pharmaceutical) culpability. Still, the strong, respectful writing makes this crucial and broadly relevant story unfailingly human. (author's note) (Fiction. YA)