‘I loved my baby brother, until Uncle took me to the market and sold me.’

Is this the book for you? It’s an emotional roller coaster that will keep you up reading all night. The story is set on an early summer morning in a small kitchen of a small house in a small town of China. The main character is a little girl that lives with her family. She’s very grateful and blessed with what little she has in life. She’s committed and won’t give up without a fight. Her uncle has never had children and is quite awkward around them. Even though he doesn’t show it, often it’s obvious that he loves his niece and nephew and wants the best for them in life. He tries to help in his own way.

When the little girl was younger she was very happy and then her brother was born and not long after that her father died. Her family tried to take over his jobs and it just became too overwhelming so the uncle offered to the mum to sell his oldest daughter for money so they can survive. He took her to the market and sold her to a man with a wife and a son. She was to work for the wife and then when she’s old enough she would marry the son. To find out the ending of the story you will have to read the book!

Personally the book was not my cup of tea but it’s a very well written book. It made me feel blessed to be who I am and I felt so many different emotions whilst reading it.

I would recommend this book to adults of the age 20 – 40 and people interested in mystery, also to people that have experienced situations like this will able to relate to this book.

Jasmine MB, Year 8.

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Spilled Water by Sally Grindley is a story about a Chinese girl who beats all odds in her life to finding her way home to her family. This book was very emotional and life changing and made me look at my life differently.

This story is about an eleven year-old girl named Lu-Si Yan who lived with her mother, father, and brother and uncle named Bo. One day her father is killed in a tragic accident that leaves Lu-Si and her family estranged. Since the father was the ruler of the family, the mother didn’t know how to take care of the brother and Lu-Si and the farm. So to make ends meet it was decided that Lu-Si and her brother were to be sold so that the mother could make enough money to buy them back.

Little did they know, the person who bought Lu-Si lived very far and soon it was too late to turn back. Now Lu-Si must go through obstacles and difficulties to try to find her way back home to her family. This book deals with family and the sacrifices people have to make to ensure another person’s safety. Overall it was a fantastic book that is based on true stories that happened in China during this time period. As a child personally, I didn’t know that kids had to go through so much and I didn’t know that they had to provide for their family.

Karin, Year 8

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Imagine that you’re a little young girl that loved your father, mother and brother. But all this was about to change. You didn’t realise what was going to happen or why. Your uncle gripped you by the arm and pulled you away from your mother and brother, your mum looked at you, but didn’t say a word. How would you feel? I wouldn’t know what to do.

This little girl’s name was Lu Si-Yan. Her journey was just beginning. From her idyllic country home to the smog-wrapped tower blocks and factories of the big city, Lu Si-Yan is taken to a lot of work ahead. But she refuses to spend her life in servitude, for she’s determined to be reunited with her beloved mother and brother. She was only 9 years old when her father died. It was very sudden. One day he was there, the next he wasn’t. Her mother did not tell her very much, but he was hit by a taxi that swerved to miss a child.

Her uncle is looking after her, but he didn’t do anything for her. She had to do everything for herself: make her food, go out and earn money, wash her clothes; she even worked on a farm in a local village. In their country the boys are more important. Because the mother can’t afford to keep Lu Si-Yan, she kept her baby brother (Li-hu) instead.

All the money she earned would now go to her mother’s debts. Eventually she was back with her mother and everything was going great and she was earning money for their family and working really hard. They gave Li-hu the job of feeding the hens and ducks and collecting their eggs, he loved it.

The uncle kept coming back once and a while and would expect them to look after him, feed him, wash all of his clothes and provide all the food and clean up all of his things, and he did not help once and he never offered. He started acting very strange but she wasn’t sure why.

Then the heart breaking words came out. “Your mother can no longer afford to keep you, you have to go.”

She was at an orphanage and had to hold up a sign saying my name is Lu Si-Yan, I am young but I can wash, cook, clean and sew. I will be a good servant. She was horrified when her uncle gave that to her. Then he just disappeared and never came back. People came in to look at her to see if they could buy her and keep her. Some guy called Mr Chen bought her. He said that she will have to work for his wife then marry his son. Her whole life was about to change.

Eventually after approximately 4 months with them she felt too much of a prisoner so this nice lady called. Mrs Hong helped her escape to her life back with her mother and brother. She also made heaps of friends travelling back to find her family and far far away from her uncle.

This book is inspiring because it is taking you on a journey of this little girl and going through all her tough times and it’s just great to hear a happy end to her journey.

Jasmine H., Year 8

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‘I loved my baby brother, until Uncle took me to market and sold me.’

From the beginning the book Spilled Water is very straight forward. The first sentence definitely tells us a lot about the story. This book is based on real life and it is very heart filling, heart racing and realistic because Lu Si-Yan’s uncle sold her at a market at the age of nine. This happens in real life: people sell kids for money. It is very interesting to see why they do it and how hard it must be on the kids to work from such a young age. It is incredible to see how Lu Si-Yan pushed through it.

Lu Si-Yan is a girl of nine years who lives in a small village with her mum, dad and brother. She also has an Uncle who is very mean to Lu Si-Yan’s father because her mum gave birth to a girl. Lu Si-Yan’s father tragically dies and her family is struggling to pay for food. One day the Uncle turns up at the house and takes Lu Si-Yan to a market to sell her to a rich family where she works as a servant and when she is old enough she would marry their son.

From this book I’ve learned how people actually live and how hard it must be to go through months without seeing their family and working non-stop. In this book we see how one person who you thought was your family suddenly takes you away from everyone you loved.

I rate this book a 3 out of 5 because it went into so much detail about the father and hardly any detail about the mother. I recommend this book for young teenagers from the ages 13 – 16. This book is definitely one to read.

Emily, Year 8