The Other Side of Truth
4/5
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About this ebook
When Nigeria's corrupt military government kills their mother, twelve-year-old Sade and her brother Femi think their lives are over. Out of fear for their safety, their father, an outspoken journalist, decides to smuggle the children out of Nigeria and into London, where their uncle lives. But when they get to the cold and massive city, they find themselves lost and alone, with no one to trust and no idea when -- or if -- they will ever see their father again.
The Other Side of Truth is a gripping adventure story about courage, family, and the power of truth.
Beverley Naidoo
Beverley Naidoo joined the resistance to apartheid as a student in South Africa, leading to detention without trial and exile in England. She is the author of the widely popular Journey to Jo’burg, the Carnegie Medal winner The Other Side of Truth, its sequel, Web of Lies, and the award-winning books Out of Bounds, No Turning Back, and Burn My Heart. Visit her online at www.beverleynaidoo.com.
Read more from Beverley Naidoo
Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Journey to Jo’Burg Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Out of Bounds: Seven Stories of Conflict and Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Turning Back: A Novel of South Africa Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Web of Lies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for The Other Side of Truth
9 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love it when I was reading this book downloads of a lot of fun to share with them and outside of a good idea that store in love with the truth is the best way for the truth is the best poor and back again in the incredible journey of the truth about it holds a good lol been so much for Adam is the you look at the trusty and back again in the incredible journey of the type of a lot more to share with them and back again in the incredible journey of the truth about it holds a good lol been so much for Adam is the first time flies in a good thing about this is the incredible journey of the truth about it holds a new one that store in the middle of fun to watch the video is not a lot of people who have a little partying with them in the incredible journey of the truth about it holds a good lol been so much for Adam is the incredible hulk Hogan's new book downloads of fun to have a lot of fun to watch
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Really loved this book. Probably could've read it all in one sitting if I'd had the time.There were a few places where I could have cried, Naidoo did a really good job of writing the character so you sympathised with her.The course materials mention a sequel which deals with Femi which I would like to read as he's so closed off in this book that sooner or later all that anger and hurt will have to come out.Really interesting book to study too, decided to use it as one of the books to write about in my essay.Was surprised to learn Beverley Naidoo is a white South African, I was expecting her to be Nigerian as the book felt very personal.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sade lives in Nigeria with her mother (a nurse), her father (a journalist), and her younger brother, Femi. Her father writes articles for the last remaining newspaper in Nigeria that dares to publish the truth about Nigeria's brutal military government.When their mother is killed by government gunmen, their father hires a woman to pose as their mother and smuggle them into London, where they will stay with an uncle. Their father plans to join them as soon as he can get a fake passport. Sade and Femi make it to London, but are left alone when their uncle does not meet them at the airport. After some scary experiences while wandering around a strange new city, they are taken in by a government agency that works with refugees. Not wanting to put their father in danger back in Nigeria, they lie about their last name and hometown. When their father makes it to London, he is imprisoned for entering the country with a fake passport. This is a beautifully written novel and the descriptions and metaphors are stunning. The only part of the story that didn't work for me was the fact that Sade, so brave and true to herself when it comes to bringing her father's story to light, does the opposite when faced with bullies at school. Perhaps it was more realistic the way Naidoo wrote it, but I really wanted to see Sade stand up to her personal bullies just like her dad.This is a compelling and moving novel. A must-read.
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- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Lagos twelve year old Sade and her ten year old brother Femi are getting ready for school when they hear the sound of shots: they find their mother lying dead in their father's arms in their driveway, after getting in the way of a bullet meant for her husband, a journalist on an English language newspaper who has received death threats for his criticism of the Nigerian government. Within hours further death threats have been received and Sade's father, Folarin Solaja, decides that both he and his children must leave the country at once. The same night the children are given into the care of a woman who will smuggle them into Britain where they can live with their uncle who teaches at a London college, while their father will travel separately under a false passport as his own has been siezed by the government. But when the children arrive in London their uncle does not meet them at Heathrow and they are abandoned by their so-called protector; when they attempt to trace their uncle at his college he has disappeared and has not been seen for a week. Wondering alone late at night on the streets of London the children are eventually found by police, and passed into the hands of social services to find them emergency accomodation. Not knowing whether their father has escaped from Nigeria they are frightened to give their real names, but as they are clearly traumatised they are granted temporary permission to stay in Britain and placed with a foster family. But what has happened to their uncle and will they be reunited with their father...Much of the book deals with Sade's experience as she attempts to settle at her new school, where she is bullied by some of her new classmates, and the parallels between this and her father's experiences standing up to the authorities in Nigeria, give the books its title. Because she is from Africa she is assumed not to speak English, and not to able to spell her own name, whereas in fact Sade has been brought up speaking English as well as Yoruba from birth, and is a well-educated girl who attended a good school in Lagos. These assumptions don't seem particularly racist in character, as some of the bullies are Caribbean in origin, but seem more to reflect the stereotypes that children might pick up about Africa given what is normally seen on the television. I was particularly interested in the portrayal of schools in the U.K. versus schools in Nigeria as I work closely with someone of Nigerian origin who has sent her own children to boarding school there in preference to them attending the schools locally. Saying that in my son's class there are three children from Nigeria who have gone the other way.Altogether a good YA read, with some similarities to Pigeon English that I read earlier in the year.