Chanda's Secrets by Allan Stratton

Allan Stratton
Chanda’s Secrets

“Chanda’s Secrets is a novel with the lilt of Africa in its language and the urgency of adolescent struggle in every paragraph. When AIDS isn’t just a faraway acronym, but a sinister, invisible poison that threatens to steal your family, creep into your nightmares, break your heart and darken your future, how do you learn to grow up with love and courage? That’s one of Chanda’s secrets. This powerful story hits home with its harsh truths, its pain and its hard-won hopefulness. No one can read Chanda’s Secrets and remain untouched by the young people who are caught in the AIDS pandemic and still battling to make sense of their lives.”
—Stephen Lewis, U.N. Special envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa

Sixteen-year-old Chanda Kabelo has secrets. Her mother is acting strangely, her little sister is out of control, and her best friend is in serious trouble. To make matters worse, people are dying around her. Everyone is afraid to say why, but Chanda knows: it’s because of AIDS. Chanda's Secrets is a suspense-filled novel about a teenager who fights to rescue the people she loves. Through his dramatic story-telling, Allan Stratton captures the love of family, the loyalty of friends, the pain of bereavement, and a fearlessness that is powered by the heart. Above all, this is a story about the courage of living with truth.

2006 Finalist for France's Le Prix Sorcières

Michael L. Printz Honor Book, 2005, awarded by the ALA

Children's Africana Book Award, 2005, Best Book for the Older Reader, awarded by the African Studies Association (U.S.A.)

ALA, Best Books for Young Adults, 2005

ALA, Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2005

International Readers Association, Notable Book, 2005

International Readers Association: Notable Book for a Global Society, 2005

New York Public Library: Books for the Teen Age, starred citation, 2005

Booklist, Editor's Choice, 2005

Silver Stones Honor Book, 2005

Canadian Library Association: 2005 Young Adult Canadian
Book Award nominee

White Pines Honour Book Award, 2005

Willow Award nominee

ForeWord Magazine Juvenile Fiction Gold Medal, 2005

“The Year's Best, 2005”, Resource Links

Leicester Book of the Year Award for Teenage Fiction 2005 nominee

"Our Choice, 2005", starred citation, The Canadian Children's Book Centre

The Children's Literature Choice List, 2005; Children's Literature;
United States

Top 10 Black History Books for Youth, 2005; American Library
Association-Booklist; United States

Children's Book Award Notable Book 2005 Young Adult/Fiction United
States

“Painful and powerful in equal measure—as it should be. An extraordinary literary achievement.”—Michael Morpurgo, Children’s Laureate (Great Britain)

“The statistics of the millions infected with HIV/AIDS in southern Africa find a human face in this gripping story... Far from case history, Chanda’s immediate, first-person, present-tense narrative is neither sentimental nor graphic as it brings close the personal struggle with all its pain and loss, shame and guilt... Stratton creates an authentic sense of the community in town and in the bush, including the poverty, overburdened hospitals, struggling schools, and packed cemeteries.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Smart and determined, Chanda is a character whom readers care for and believe in, in spite of her almost impossible situation. The details of sub-Saharan African life are convincing and smoothly woven into this moving story of poverty and courage.”—School Library Journal (starred review)

“Powerful... The strong, respectful writing makes this crucial and broadly relevant story unfailingly human.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Finely nuanced, beautifully articulated.”—The Globe and Mail

“Allan Stratton paints a devastatingly poignant portrait of a sub-Saharan teen's world torn apart by AIDS... A particularly wrenching reading experience... Stratton has eloquently given a voice to the voiceless.”—Quill & Quire

“This is a searing book on an important subject... Stratton neither overplays nor underplays the tragedy or the hope here, and there is not a maudlin moment in the novel, just genuine grief and understanding as the epidemic assumes some of its many human faces.”
—The Bulletin (Center for Children’s Books, U.S.A.)

“Immensely readable... It inspires compassion—perhaps even activism—by putting a precise, human face on sorrow.”—Toronto Star

Length: 200 pp
Setting: sub-Saharan Africa
Period: present

World rights, Annick Press
Australian/New Zealand rights, Allen & Unwin
Chinese rights, Hsiao Lu Publishing Co., Ltd.
Dutch rights, Van Goor
French world rights, Bayard Jeunesse Editions
German rights, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag Jr.
Indian/South African/UK rights, The Chicken House
Japanese rights, Asunaro-Shobo
Korean rights, Random House Joong Ang
Slovenian rights, Zalozba Mis
UK rights, The Chicken House
Vietnamese rights, Thuong Huyen Books, Ltd.