I found a neat fiction book about child sponsorship ...

Once a week I take my preschooler over to the library. While I hang out in the children's section with her, I browse the shelves and re-read some of my old favorite books, (Nancy Drew and the Boxcar Children, anyone?) I also check out what's new in children's literature.

I came across a book the other day, written for grade-schoolers, called "The Exiles at Home." It is about a family of four sisters. During a school break one of the girls uses her Christmas money to sponsor a boy in Africa. She commits to sending 10 pounds a month and writing letters. The dilemma is the girl didn't tell her parents she did this, and now she and the sisters have to figure out how to come up with the sponsorship money, on their own, each month. Much of the plot centers around the odd jobs the girls take on and the scrapes they get into trying to accomplish this.

The book not only writes about the sponsorship experience from the girls' perspective -- the author includes sections written from the boy's point of view. What it was like for him to learn he had a new sponsor, what it meant for him to receive letters, his hopes and dreams about meeting his new sponsors.

This book has a VERY cool plot twist and a really neat ending.

It's such a great book for parents who want to introduce the idea of child sponsorship to their kids.

Now I have to add a disclaimer -- the girls in the book are not "perfect children." Clearly there is some deceitfulness -- sponsoring a child without their parents' permission for example! -- and some other mildly naughty things they do in the book. So there is definitely some opportunity for discussion here about what the girls could have done differently to make this experience a smoother one.

But if that doesn't turn you off, I would definitely recommend this book for the 9-12 year olds in your family. Yay, I love books!