The Heaven Shop by Deborah Ellis

Binti is a character you will never forget and this compelling, compassionate story will change your perspective on the world. Allen and Unwin

Binti lives in Malawi. Daily life is a struggle and her mother has died many years ago. Somehow, though they are a happy family group who are able to make ends meet because her father Bambo has enough work in his coffin shop meaning Binti along with her older siblings is able to attend school. As a bonus, Binti works on a radio show where she is paid to take part in stories intended to help the people in her community understand health issues such as AIDS and HIV. 

Then everything changes. Bambo dies and it could be AIDS. The relatives arrive like vultures and take away nearly everything and they squabble about which relative will take Binti, Junie and her brother Kwasi. It is decided Kwasi will be sent to work for a fisherman and Binti and Junie will work in the home of an uncle. 

Uncle Wysom and Aunt Agnes treat the children as slaves. Their meagre possessions are taken away and the girls have to sleep on the floor of a storeroom. Their days are filled with cleaning and cooking preparation. Junie, who was always so smart, seems to have shut down but actually she has a plan. The men in the bar give her money. It is not stated but it is implied that this is for sexual favours. The girls hide the money carefully in their little space but one day a younger child discovers it. The girls are now accused by the aunt and uncle of theft. Junie tells Binti to run away to their grandmother Gogo. Junie herself leaves hoping to find work and to make a home for the three siblings.

When Binti reaches Gogo she really discovers the realities of poverty and also the horrible results of the AIDS epidemic. Luckily, though, her grandmother is kind, Junie is found and, while it very sad, Binti does know how to make coffins. Her father taught her and so as the story ends there is some hope that these orphan children can now find a way to survive.

The Heaven Shop was first published in 2004 which made me think it would be out of print, but as far as I can see it may still be available. I found my copy in a bookshop on sale. It had been on their shelves since 2016 and I bought it early in 2019. Back in 2005 I read The Heaven shop and yesterday I read it again.  I really enjoyed the honesty of this story even though the extreme poverty is distressing. From an historical perspective it was interesting to read about the awful prejudice sounding AIDS and the misunderstandings about the transmission of this disease. Read more of the plot here. 

Binti, like Parvana (the heroine of Ellis’s Breadwinner trilogy) before her, is a plucky, high-spirited heroine whom young readers will take to their hearts. Quill and Quire

The Heaven shop is a Young Adult title. For younger readers in Senior Primary I would look for The Paper House as a companion read:

And also Girl of the Southern Sea