Spilled Water

by Sally Grindley

Overview

When her husband dies, Lu Si-yan's mother is encouraged to sell her young daughter into domestic service. Lu Si-yan is just eleven when sold by her uncle. Nearly two years will pass before she can get back home to her mother and brother. In this powerful and compelling novel Sally Grindley portrays the life of a young girl in China, a young girl whose life is said to be like 'spilled water'.

With a brilliant first-person narrative and a powerful description of time and place, this novel is gripping, heart-wrenching and utterly mesmerising.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781408807316
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	09/07/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	9 - 11 Years

About the Author

Sally Grindley lives in Cheltenham and has worked in children's books all her career - first as an editor for Books for Children book club and now as a full-time writer. Sally is the author of many outstanding picture books for young readers and this is her second novel. Sally travelled to China to research Spilled Water.
Sally Grindley lives in Cheltenham. She has been involved with children's books nearly all her working life, first as editor of the children's book club Books for Children, and for almost as long as a children's author. Sally's novel Spilled Water won a Smarties Gold Medal, as well as regional awards, such as the Lincolnshire Young People's Award.

Editorial Reviews

Grindley's (No Trouble at All) debut novel centers on narrator Lu Si-yan, whose humble yet happy life with her parents and younger brother in rural China is shattered by her father's sudden death. The novel begins as Si-yan's Uncle takes her on a mysterious trip, and the early chapters alternate with flashbacks to the days before and immediately following her father's death. In their grief, the family struggles to survive: their roof collapses, the vegetables Si-yan and her mother hope to sell at market are ruined when their rickshaw overturns and a drought causes their crops to wilt. Readers soon learn the destination of the mystery trip: Si-yan's uncle sells the 11-year-old into servitude, to help repay the family's debts. The child, likened to worthless "spilled water," becomes the property of a wealthy man in a smog-shrouded city who expects Si-yan to serve his family until she is old enough to marry his brain-damaged son. Much of the narrative labors to emphasize the low status of girls and women in society. The heroine's grueling days in her master's hapless household (brightened by the presence of a kind grandmother, who helps the girl escape) precedes an equally gloomy account of her life as an exploited factory worker, a job she hopes will enable her to return home with money for her mother. Though some poignant scenes give the narrative a lift, many readers will find this a rather plodding, tragic tale. Ages 8-12. (Sept.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 4-7-As a young girl in rural China, Lu Si-yan grows up with two loving parents and a younger brother. Her father farms their land and fishes to provide for the family After her father dies, Lu Si-yan struggles to keep her family fed but can't manage when her mother becomes ill. Her uncle decides the best he can do is sell the 11-year-old into domestic service. Lu Si-yan realizes that her life is like "spilled water"-a waste. An upper-class family for whom she must cook and clean purchases the girl. She is kept locked in their apartment, but escapes when she realizes they plan to marry her to their mentally retarded son. As she attempts to return home to her family, Lu Si-yan's money is stolen and she becomes indebted to a couple that owns a large factory. While working to pay off her debt and making friends, her longing to return home is still evident. It takes an almost deathly illness to bring help from Uncle. Liz Sutherland does a wonderful job of reading this novel by Sally Grindley (Bloomsbury, 2004). She gives each character a unique voice and Chinese accent, from Uncle's curt tone to the voices of Lu Si-yan's friends in the factory. An excellent addition for classes studying China or the exploitation of factory workers, and for world cultures collections in public libraries.-Lisa Baker, Chocowinity Middle School, NC Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

When Lu Si-Yan's father dies and her mother suffers a breakdown, her selfish, old-fashioned Uncle sells her to the wealthy Chen family as a servant. Barely 12 and inexperienced, Lu Si-Yan's slave-labor is recognized as illegal by the Chen grandmother, who gives her money and helps her leave. After the money is stolen, the girl's naive innocence lets her fall into the trap of factory life, complete with unfair labor practices, compulsory overtime, withheld wages in a prison-like setting that offers room and board for unbearably long work days and nights. Grindley gives an eye-opening view at modern entrepreneurial China within the sweatshop environment of a toy factory. Her protagonist matures in the company of selfish, exploitive adults who take advantage of her youth and needy circumstances and some conscientiously courageous individuals like the Chen's grandmother, their cook, and fellow factory worker and surrogate sister, Li Mei. Their support provides a source of strength and justice to aid in her return home. A well-developed page-turner with a somewhat idealistic ending as Uncle welcomes Lu Si-Yan home, ever remorseful for his role in her harsh, difficult life and her mother's ultimate death. (Fiction. 12-15)

Kirkus Reviews