'Theo lives in a vast dumping ground got broken electronics in Ghana. He searches the trash for metal scraps to sell for cash, and dreams of going to school and escaping this harsh life. So when Emanuel turns up with talk of buried treasure, Theo sees a chance to get out of Trashland. But Emanuel draws the attention of a local gang, and Theo realises his new friend is keeping dangerous secrets…'
Welcome To Trash Land is the latest environmentally themed release from children's publisher Barrington Stoke Books, and takes a look at the lesser known part of electronic waste and recycling; and how often it can lead to mass pollution, as well as to children living and working in dangerous conditions.
The story follows Theo, a young orphan boy who was left in Trashland, a huge electrical dump in Agbobloshie, Ghana. Having been abandoned by a father who promised he'd one day return for him, Theo spends his nights sleeping in an old shed with chickens, and his days scavenging through the piles of electrical waste looking for useful pieces of scrap metal that he can sell on for enough money to afford a meal for the day.
When Theo is approached by another boy, Emanuel, his life begins to change. Emanuel claims he needs Theo's help, that he has a map to a stash of treasure buried somewhere in Trashland by his older brother. At first Theo isn't sure whether to believe the boy or not, but as he ends up becoming more and more involved with Emanuel he becomes convinced that there really could be treasure buried out in the dump. Treasure that could change Theo's life forever.
We all know that the world is in trouble, that thanks to pollution and rampant destruction of environments that we don't have long left as a species, that our children and their children will be living in even worse circumstances. Most of us try to do something about this, even if it's only a little bit. We think that instead of putting something in the rubbish bin we can put it in the recycling bin and that helps, that solves a problem. This book, however, reveals how short sighted that idea is, and how even recycling isn't enough.
I had no idea places like this existed in the world. I know that there are mega-landfill's, places where we bury our rubbish in the ground and hope to forget about the problem, but I had no idea that happened to the majority of the things that we recycle too. And the fact that more 'developed' countries like the UK and the US simply ship their waste across the world to let the poorer people deal with it is frankly shameful.
Luckily, Welcome To Trash Land has some hope in it, as we get to see Theo trying his best to make a better life for himself and his friends. Theo is a character that feels like he should have lost all his hope; that he should be a kid who's spirit has been so crushed by where he is and how he's made to survive that he can't see anything else. But he has a strength of character and drive to do better that I'm not sure many would possess in his position. Even before Emanuel turns up talking about treasure and promising to make Theo rich enough to escape Trashland Theo is the kind of kid who still hopes for a better tomorrow.
Steve Cole manages to walk a really fine line between telling a story that is completely hopeless, where the reality of that's going on in the world is so crushing that you can't help but feel awful, yet also telling a story about the power of hope, of striving for something better and never giving in.
The book is also accompanied by a number of illustrations by Oriol Vidal, who provides both the gorgeous cover art for the book, as well as several illustrations throughout the course of the book. Vidal is able to bring a strange sense of beauty to an environment that s literal trash, and is able to convey the strangeness of a landscape where everything around you is rubbish.
Welcome To Trash Land is a book that confronts younger readers with the reality of the world, with how damaging human beings are to both the environment and other people; yet is doesn't drown its readers in sorrow, nor does it leave you feeling hopeless at the end. If anything, the book will make you want to get out there and do something, to try and make the world a bit better. And that's a hell of a message to give to future generations.
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