I Am Sam Book

Open Book: Beggar's Feast, by Randy Boyagoda

Here the resourceful lad, now 13, becomes partner with another boy, a “street hustler business man,” operating a stall filled with junk in the Colombo neighbourhood of Pettah, a “glorious, cutthroat bedlam,” with “bright and steamy knife-edge streets.” Here the protagonist launches a career as a big time “street hustler business man.” So successful is he that by the time the Second World War rolls around, his services are personally requested by no less a personage than Lord Louis Mountbatten, in charge of the defence of Ceylon. No birth-village surname for this mover and shaker. He calls himself Sam Kandy — “Kandy” being the name of the ancient royal city of Ceylon. From the start, this moniker impresses other people, like the four boys to whom he attaches himself after graduation from Pettah. “Only a city boy could be so strange and bold, proud and profane, as to be called Sam Kandy,” they reckon. , the hero’s father holds the view that “there was a strange kind of magick bias, which good or bad names, as he called them, irresistibly impress’d upon our characters and conduct.” Sam Kandy would agree and add that, if you don’t like your name, you had better earn through your “character and conduct” a more auspicious one. His own father was not good enough to have a name. When Kandy returns to his village, the local feudal lord disputes Kandy’s right to give himself a name and doubts whether the villagers will accept it. But they do, because Kandy, in fact, possesses the strangeness and boldness, the pride and profanity, to make good his claim. Pressed to reveal his “real” name by a Sudugama grandee, Kandy replies, “One day I had to be Sam Kandy. The rest I wipe from my feet.”

The theme fits with Boyagoda’s narrative voice — an excited storyteller’s voice, the voice of an oral, not a print culture, where the “magick bias” of names is well understood by everybody. It’s as lush as the tropical landscape of Ceylon, this voice, with its endless sentences, its mad cataloguing of things — a style sinuous, declamatory, periphrastic, peppered with extravagant metaphors and odd phrases such as “crudescent frying pans.

Kid Konnection: Once Was Lost « Bermudaonion's Weblog

Everyone assumes Sam has the perfect life and the perfect family just because her dad’s a preacher.  Sam doesn’t think so, though.  Her mom’s in rehab and her dad seems more interested in his church family than his real family.  Her dad counsels other people, yet their family avoids talking about issues.

When a young girl in their community – a member of their church – disappears, Sam begins to suspect everyone she knows and questions her beliefs.  She feels like her world is falling apart and she can’t figure out how to hold it together.

I loved from the beginning – it’s a page turning story with fantastic characters.  I think Sam is the main reason I love this book so much.  She’s not perfect but she wants to be good, and she’s starting to have doubts about all that she’s always believed in.  I think Zarr got Sam’s character spot on, because just about everyone has had feelings like Sam and will be able to relate to her.

I liked that things weren’t tied up in a sweet little bow at the end of the book.  Sam’s family was working on making things better, but they weren’t there yet.  The ending showed that these things take time and effort.  I also think the title of the book is perfect – it fits the book in more than one way.  I also appreciated that even though Sam thought she had feelings for a boy, this book is clean, so it can be enjoyed by the younger YA audience on up to adults.  I do think many adults will enjoy this book, because the feelings Sam has aren’t exclusive to teens – I know I did!

For more children’s books reviews, go to Booking Mama ’s feature, Kid Konnection . If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week,  leave a comment as well as a link on her site.

I have never read a book about a preacher’s kid, but I can imagine that the circumstances that surround this situation probably has some unique elements that I think would be fascinating. I also like that this is a clean book as well, and wouldn’t mind both giving it to Melissa and reading it for myself. Glad to know that you loved it. It sounds great!

I am Sam!

Sam I Am

I Am Sam

Sam I Am, I Am Sam

The 1970s, arguments