Synopsis: Leonard Boameh wants to earn extra house points at school and plans a secret visit to Elmina fort to see the ‘Door of No Return’. However, his secret adventure turns into a nightmare when he is kidnapped by local street kids. Renamed ‘Angel Boy’ because of his clean-cut appearance, Leonard becomes their captive beggar with no possibility of escape.

Review: Angel Boy is a very powerful story set in Accra and Elmina, Africa, which engages with themes such as history and slavery as well as contemporary issues such as homelessness, poverty and child labour.

This book is very well written and accessible to readers of all ages. Narrated in the third person, this novel follows the stories of both the protagonist, Leonard Boameh, and his father, Stephen Boameh. Ashley successfully engages the reader’s emotions and is able to convey Leonard’s fear and Stephen’s huge sense of loss and desperation. As the novel is written using simple and direct language, Ashley is able to draw the reader in so that they share in each of the characters’ agonies. The fact that Leonard is kidnapped by street kids is also poignant.

Angel Boy draws attention to child poverty and homelessness in Africa. For example, Ashley writes: ‘Here infants as young as three could be seen breaking up stone for the roads and for concrete’ (p. 45). As the street gang members are exclusively children, Ashley is able to do two things. Firstly, to illustrate the desperation. Secondly, although the theme of children kidnapping children is, from an adult perspective, quite sinister in itself, from a child's perspective it may be less frightening and therefore younger readers may be able to cope more readily with the content.

With regard to the subject of slavery,  Ashley clearly explains the significance of Elmina and how this fort was used by Europeans ‘for imprisoning slaves before they were shipped off in shackles to be sold in America’ (p. 12). He explains how slaves were kept in the fort and how families were separated forever by slavery. The story of Leonard and Stephen’s separation  illustrates the pain and anguish felt by thousands of families who were separated.

Ashley not only engages with the atrocities in Africa, but also with the subsequent treatment of slaves after they were sold across the Atlantic. Many slaves, were renamed by their slave-owners. When the street kids rename Leonard ‘Angel Boy’, Ashley engages with this renaming theme. Like the slaves in the past, Leonard is also taken and renamed: as well as his freedom, his identity is also stolen from him.

Angel Boy is a powerful, poignant and moving story. As well as illustrating the dangers of leaving home without telling one’s parents, this novel retells the story of slavery from a contemporary perspective. Foremost a moving story, this book could also be a great resource for supporting history and the study of the triangular/transatlantic slave trade. It would be a good choice for a whole class novel and an important addition to any library.

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2008-07-17