Gopal, a young and ambitious boy, lives with his family on a farm in India. As times get hard and the family loses the farm, they decide to move to the city in hopes of job opportunities. When they continue to struggle to keep food on the table in the city, Gopal takes it upon himself to find a job that will help the family. He can't stand to sit around while he and his younger brother and sister are hardly getting food. Soon after he gets a job working for a factory owner that has given his word to meet his needs, he is hit with the reality that he has been scammed into working in a hot, humid, and horribly-smelling building with many other boys his age. If he and the boys do not meet the expectation of the cruel overseer, they are beaten and punished. They are not even allowed to call each other by name. The boys begin telling each other stories at night and start building relationships with each other. Gopal hopes to escape one day and live with his family once again, but that is not a task he can accomplish on his own.
Child labor is far more common than people realize, and this book shows some of the harsh realities of life as a child labor slave. 316 pgs, pb. ~ Brianna