The Heaven Shop by Deborah Ellis takes place in Malawi (Africa). It features the life of a 13-year-old girl named Binti who is the star of a radio show. Her family is loving. Her father is a coffin maker and sends his children to good schools. Binti has an older sister and brother. Binti's world flips when Binti's dad dies. So far, I am enjoying the book and am looking forward to finishing it. Again, I feel fortunate that I have everything I have. As in the book, there are many people in the world that don't have even half the things I have, and I still complain. This book also teaches you an example of real life issues in places like Africa. I always knew their lives weren't great, but knowing specifically how their lives are like is completely different.
There are several themes in the story; such as death, diseases, and poverty. These come to me because these are things I haven't experienced much in my life. This book handles a lot of example of these such as people dying of HIV/AIDS. Such diseases aren't common in Kuala Lumpur, where we live. Like Binti's parents, a lot of people in their neighborhood has HIV/AIDS. In the hospital, there are lots of people dying everyday. And most people can only offord to be in public hospitals that barely have any facilities for the sick. Also, when they have diseases that can be cured, they don't have the money to buy the medicine. The Heaven Shop teaches me that so many people in this world are still under the label of poverty.
Firt of all, I learned that Malawi is in Africa. When I first read the book and saw Malawi, I thought it was some place in Malaysia. But later on, I learned that it was a place somewhere in Africa. I also learned about the consequences of HIV/AIDS. I was also pretty surprised about the number of people who had AIDS in Malawi. But most of all, I have been learning that the world isn't like the environment I am living in.
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