Joanne Harris, Tim Butcher, Deborah Moggach, Kathy Lette, Xiaolu Guo, Marie Phillips, Irvine Welsh,
Because I Am a Girl
Vintage Books (a Random House U.K. imprint), 2010.

Ages 16+

Because I Am a Girl is an anthology of work by prominent writers who were sent by a U.K.-based community development charity, Plan, to observe and respond to the desperate circumstances of young girls and women in impoverished areas around the world. While not explicitly a young adult book, in its variety, depth and honesty, it will inspire many thoughtful young women readers.

The seven accounts, set in Africa, South America and the Caribbean, include fiction, first-person reports and even satire. Each narrative reveals young girls facing severe physical and emotional trauma and being denied rights boys take for granted. The writers also show some girls and women who are strong and resourceful in spite of poverty, lack of education, and mistreatment.

Novelist Joanne Harris (author of Chocolat) writes of a girl in Togo waiting for her brothers to come back home.  Gradually we understand that they have been sold into slavery and will likely never return, leaving her responsible for other siblings and unable to attend school. Novelist-screenwriter Deborah Moggach (Tulip Fever) creates the unforgettable Ernestine, a beauty products saleswoman, and depicts life in her Ghanaian village. Satirist Kathy Lette (Puberty Blues), overindulges her penchant for wordplay, but nevertheless effectively depicts  the plight of impoverished Brazilian girls, deprived of birth control, bearing children in their early teens, usually from unwanted sex. Novelist Marie Phillips’ (Gods Behaving Badly) passionate, articulate report on AIDS in Uganda so indignantly takes Plan to task for what she sees as its failures that a measured response from an in-country Plan staff member follows. Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting) imagines two Dominican Republic sisters and compares how they each escape poverty and despair — one a scholar, the other a call girl.

A foreword by Plan U.K. CEO Marie Staunton introduces the project and the writers. Book sale proceeds support Plan’s work. Because I Am a Girl is a powerful means of raising awareness and would serve well as a text for aspiring writers and journalists. Plan selected writers who can change minds and hearts through their words, then provided them the freedom and opportunities to do just that.

Charlotte Richardson
June 2010