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abigailbat 's review for:

Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes
3.0

Bahni Turpin's narration definitely elevated the story.

I think my disconnect with this book comes from Sugar's personality and the setting. Sugar's a determined, spunky orphan, just delighted to make new Chinese friends and defend them. But the setting of the story - the backbreaking work on a sugar plantation, the self-defeat that Sugar's elders feel about the possibility of seeking out a new situation... they just don't go. Sugar felt incredibly naive to me, even for a girl just ten years old.