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Monday, January 31, 2011

Book Review: Trash by Andy Mulligan

Trash by Andy Mulligan
Buy Trash by Andy Mulligan

Trash
by Andy Mulligan
Non-series

David Fickling Books
ISBN-10: 0-385-75214-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-385-75214-5
Publication Date: October, 2010
List Price: $16.99

Review: Would you ever think a story about boys who go through garbage would be interesting? Trash is better than the average book about dumpsite boys. Andy Mulligan has written a very suspenseful non-series novel about kids that venture through several towns and meet many interesting people after rummaging through Trash and discovering something "important". The main characters are Raphael, Guardo, and Rat (Jun Jun).

Raphael has found something that is very valuable in the Behela dumpsite, so he decides to keep it even though the police question him about possessing it and offer him a very handsome reward. He finds that his decision was definitely the wrong decision to make! Just like his friends, he is uneducated, and has minimal shelter and money. The teens travel around to escape the police. While travelling, they also uncover mysteries about robbery and death. Their adventures take them through various fascinating places including a police station and a prison. Each adventure gives them new experiences and teaches them about life. In the end Raphael realizes some of the things he did were well worth it.

This novel symbolizes how you can always work through tough times. The boys have countless exhilarating adventures in a life of poverty. The story is very suspenseful and Andy Mulligan did a terrific job transitioning through chapters. Trash is easy to understand and I never got lost. The book flows nicely through all of the crazy adventures and the author uses very expressive dialogue which makes you feel like you are at a movie. I personally like how he uses different narrators in each chapter. It helps to show different points of view of the adventures. One thing I did not enjoy is that numerous characters enter and exit the story without a sufficient explanation. I recommend Trash to anyone 10 and older, especially if you like mysteries or adventure- type novels. I rate this book a 9 out of 10.

Review written by Sahil (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Random House for providing a copy of Trash for this review.

Have you read Trash? How would you rate it?

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