Reading the World discussion

Tara Sullivan’s young adult novel, The Bitter Side of Sweet, provides an account of modern-day child slavery in Ivory Coast, Africa. Although fictional, the story highlights the dark reality of the cacao industry as Sullivan chronicles the journey of three children to freedom. Sullivan’s adventure-filled survival story was published in 2016.

This Young Adult book is largely about the exploitation of children in the harvesting of cacao. The seeds of the cacao trees are used to make cocoa and then chocolate. The Western World’s love of this indulgence and the very low margins of profit for the farmers drives many of the orchard owners in Côte d’Ivoire to “hire” children who they often do not pay other than in providing some shelter and food.

Our main characters are Amadou and his little brother Seydou, who leave Mali in their season of drought in hopes of being able to supplement their family’s income and to prevent their family from having to feed them. They find themselves harvesting cacao pods under a ruthless quota system whereby failure to meet quota is grounds for being beaten. Into this mix comes a kidnapped young girl who instantly causes trouble for the owners but also the boys. The story continues on as an escape and hazardous journey tale but what gives the tale a driving force is the fact that the boys are not educated and they have no knowledge about chocolate, urban life, or even that cellphones can take pictures. The relationship between the two brothers and their growing to like the kidnapped girl is well done.
I was at first surprised that the horrific conditions of the cacao farm would be so graphically described for a young reader but then I thought that, in fact, the young readers were probably the same age as the characters and there were many young boys living under these conditions.
As the book is for Young Adults it is a straight linear telling and a rather unrealistic but somewhat heartwarming ending.
The book was published in 2016. The major chocolate companies had pledged to end their reliance on child labor to harvest their cocoa by 2005. Now they say they will eliminate the worst forms of child labor in their supply chains by 2025.
The conditions of the child labor in this book gives a compelling reason to make sure any chocolate we eat has been ethically sourced.

I listened tot he audiobook earlier this month, and had similar thoughts as Gail. I don't usually go for YA, but I couldn't find many other available Cote D'Ivoire books, and did actually end up enjoying this one. Well, enjoying is not always the right word, but did appreciate it throughout. It does convey the horror of the chocolate industry really well, and I became invested in the children's fate. Learning about the extent to which slavery is still used in the trade (mostly through the case against Mars and Nestle) definitely made me stop purchasing commercial chocolate and looking into what I buy now.

I also agree though that the ending was far more uh...successful...than I imagine the majority of similar cases are in real life. I also thought it was a bit bizarre that the emphasis they put on 'farms' more likely to use slavery are smaller ones as opposed to bigger ones (which may be true) as it is mega chocolate corporations who are most involved in purchasing slavery chocolate below fair wages.

I finished this book in January and here is my review

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The story about child slavery in cacao farming caused me to rethink my love of chocolate. There is fair trade chocolate farmed in Haiti. I will have to look for that.