The Bite of the Mango. Mariatu Kamara with Susan McClelland. Toronto, ON: Annick Press, 2008. 216 pp., pbk. & cl., $12.95 (pbk.), $24.95 (hc.). ISBN 978-1-55451-158-7 (pbk.), ISBN 978-1-55451-159-4. Subject Headings: Kamara, Mariatu. Sierra Leone-History-Civil War, 1991-2002-Personal narratives-Juvenile literature. Sierra Leone-History-Civil War, 1991-2002-Children-Biography-Juvenile literature. War victims-Sierra Leone-Biography-Juvenile literature. Amputees-Sierra Leone-Biography-Juvenile literature. Grades 9 and up / Ages 14 and up. Review by Sharon E. McKay. **** /4

excerpt:

I heard voices coming from the house beside me. The rebels had blockaded the doors and windows with big wooden planks. Inside, one of the rebels told me, were about 20 people. A single voice stood out, that of my friend Mariatu. She was wailing, calling for help, trapped with the others. My eyes darted away from the house to a terrifying sight. Two rebels were shoving Ibrahim and Mohamed up the road toward us. They were punching the boys in the back to get them to move faster. When my cousins were directly in front of us, the rebels grabbed them by the neck and pushed them down hard into the dirt. Using their gun barrels, the rebels nudged the boys until they were back to back. Then they tied Mohamed and Ibrahim together. Next, the rebels forced the boys to stare up into the blinding noonday sun. "Are you the soldiers watching the village?" one rebel yelled at them. "Are you the soldiers? Are you the soldiers?" he shouted over and over again. Mohamed and Ibrahim shook their heads, but the rebel would not relent. The boys started crying. Ibrahim had wet his pants, and I watched the stain grow. I had to look away when the rebel began waving a knife around their bare backs and scalps. I tried to find somewhere my eyes could rest, but the first place they landed was back on the house. Three young rebels, no older than me, were walking alongside it, brandishing torches that set the thatched roof on fire. Everyone inside started to scream as the fire became an inferno. A woman with a baby tied on her back managed to punch through the wooden planks blocking one of the windows. The baby had curly black hair and big eyes that were looking all around. One of the young rebels threw down his torch and grabbed the machete slung on his back. In one violent swoop, he chopped off the woman's head. The baby wailed as the woman's body fell back into the house on top of him. Her head rolled onto the road toward me. I started to cry again, and my body convulsed. "Do you want to join them?" the rebel watching over me threatened. Part of me did.

The Bite of the Mango is the true story of Mariatu Kamara, a girl born in Sierra Leone. At the age of 12, Mariatu had her hands amputated by boy-rebel soldiers. And there begins the tale.

     It is a horrifying, astonishing and painful read, but that's not all. Thanks to the careful writing of journalist Susan McClelland, it is not a catalogue of misery. Rather, it's a story told with equal measures of compassion and detachment that allows the reader to be both shocked and locked in. It's good, really good.

     The story begins in Sierra Leone, an impoverished country on the West Coast of Africa, once the battleground of a horrific civil war played out mainly in the rural areas.

     Despite the poverty in her tiny rural village, Mariatu's first few years are happy ones, filled with friends, games and chores. The preamble to the attack can be a bit confusing. Mariatu's father has two wives, neither of whom seems very pleasant. Mariatu is given to an auntie to raise, which likely would have been a great idea had the village not been attacked by rebels.

     The ensuing assault will leave the reader breathless. It's enough to say that her hands are taken off. Bleeding and traumatized, stumbling and lurching, Mariatu makes the heart-wrenching journey to a hospital. There she sits amongst a multitude of limbless children and adults -- the image is almost too much to bear. Mariatu is cared for and, as time goes by, gives birth to a baby. The infant eventually dies.

     For an author tackling this subject, the first challenge would be to get a handle on the extreme violence that could make the book completely unsuitable for a Canadian school audience. Without a doubt, some readers will feel it is too much, too hard. Most, I hope, will see the overall value of enlightening and informing our kids, of extending their compassion and understanding. That said, any astute reader with even a cursory knowledge of Africa would know that much of the actual violence has been edited out.

     The second challenge to the author is that the action in the book is front-loaded – it all happens within the first 40 pages. After the attack, the story is no longer a tale of assault, of physical survival, of child soldiers lurking in the bush. Instead, it becomes a personal journey of a girl finding her voice, trusting that voice and making her way in the world.

     Ultimately Mariatu is simply a teenage girl with teenaged hopes, dreams and demands. (She lands in England at considerable expense and effort then demands to go home because she doesn't like the weather. Teenage angst and stubbornness comes into play.) Mariatu loves getting her hair done and buying clothes. Somehow or other she puts on her own make-up. It's almost possible to forget that she has no hands.

     One can't say, "I love this book." The topic is too daunting, too savage - a level of barbarism that might cause even Hitler to pause. (I said might.) I found I had to put the book down a few times, take a breath, and start again. And yet, the hope and the challenges Mariatu overcomes, the dogged belief that her life is not over and has value, trumps the violence ten times over.

     As for the writing style and quality, we have seen adult fiction writers, journalists of all stripes, and movie stars tackle children's writing with the assumption that anyone can do it. Most fail miserably. Journalist Susan McClelland bursts out of the gate as a sensitive, articulate young adult writer who can separate emotional tripe from story telling. She gets it. McClelland is a welcome addition to the young adult stable of writers. One can hope that she pauses in this genre for awhile.

     As for beautiful Mariatu, she is now 21, a student and about to embark on a speaking tour as a UNICEF Special Representative. Amazing.

Highly Recommended.

Sharon E. McKay is an author of books for children and adolescents. Her most recent novel is War Brothers.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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