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A review by jenbsbooks
Born Behind Bars by Padma Venkatraman
3.25
I liked this fine, and while I often adore children's/YA books, this one felt very young for me. Perhaps I would have appreciated it more in my younger years. The MC is just nine years old, and the presentation is from that age view. 1st person/present tense - very conversational. In print (I had the hard copy picked up at a library sale for my LFL) and Kindle, no paragraph indentations, but spaces between sentences, making it seem longer than it is (in text - I went with the audio edition). Nice Table of Contents with topic headers for each chapter. Short chapters, 70 in all.
The blurb really tells the first half of the book ... almost makes reading it unnecessary. I just never fully got pulled in to the story, to really care about the characters. Maybe it was me. This is one that I probably would come to appreciate more through study and discussion and dissection ... but I just did a quick listen (audiobook, although as mentioned, I had the text copies on hand too) for "enjoyment" ... although a story like this often isn't something one enjoys, even with a fulfilling ending.
I always appreciate learning more about history or culture, and often it is easier in a fictional/story setting. This provided some background information on the situations in India, the caste system, the justice system, water issues. All good to know. I appreciated the author's notes at the end.
I couldn't help but think of some similarities between this and [book:Room|31685789] ... in that, we also get the story from the POV of a young boy kept captive (although that was more isolated, just he and his mother. Not "jail" but a different prison), and then coming into the wider world.
The author narrates the story, which generally I like ... and there was nothing wrong with her narration... but she is female, and the POV is 1st person, a little boy. I felt like I needed a boy's voice narrating (coming into this cold, not reviewing the blurb, I didn't even know Kabir was a boy until a few chapters in).
Middle grade - no content concerns (profanity, sex, violence).
The blurb really tells the first half of the book ... almost makes reading it unnecessary. I just never fully got pulled in to the story, to really care about the characters. Maybe it was me. This is one that I probably would come to appreciate more through study and discussion and dissection ... but I just did a quick listen (audiobook, although as mentioned, I had the text copies on hand too) for "enjoyment" ... although a story like this often isn't something one enjoys, even with a fulfilling ending.
I always appreciate learning more about history or culture, and often it is easier in a fictional/story setting. This provided some background information on the situations in India, the caste system, the justice system, water issues. All good to know. I appreciated the author's notes at the end.
I couldn't help but think of some similarities between this and [book:Room|31685789] ... in that, we also get the story from the POV of a young boy kept captive (although that was more isolated, just he and his mother. Not "jail" but a different prison), and then coming into the wider world.
The author narrates the story, which generally I like ... and there was nothing wrong with her narration... but she is female, and the POV is 1st person, a little boy. I felt like I needed a boy's voice narrating (coming into this cold, not reviewing the blurb, I didn't even know Kabir was a boy until a few chapters in).
Middle grade - no content concerns (profanity, sex, violence).