The Garbage King
Elizabeth Laird
 It tells the story of Mamo and Dani. Mamo is from a very poor family where everyone has died except for him and his sister, Tiggist. Mamo is kidnapped by a slave trader who claims to be his Uncle Merga. "Merga" takes Mamo far from the city and sells him to a cruel farmer. Dani comes from a rich and privileged family in a prosperous part of Addis Abbaba. His father, however, wants him to join the army to toughen him up. Dani's mother is sick and is moved to London, England, to receive better medical care. Dani runs away to escape his father. At the same time, Mamo escapes from the cfarmer and hitchhikes back to Addis Ababa, and hides in a graveyard where he meets Dani who is also hiding there. They form an unexpected alliance and together join a gang of beggar street boys. The gang members offer different talents to the group, and share a strict code of sharing whatever they obtain. Mamo becomes "the garbage king" because he is an expert at finding treasures in rubbish heaps. Dani writes stories which the others sell for money. Mamo tries to sell a story to a schoolteacher that turns out to be one of Dani's teachers, Ato Mesfin. Ato Mesfin recognizes Dani's handwriting, and approaches Dani's father, Ato Paulos. Ato Mesfin and Ato Paulos learn of the boys' pitch to sell their stories by talking with homeless street people. Eventually they find Dani and his gang, and Ato Paulos is angry that his son left a prosperous home to become a street urchin. Dani returns home with his father once he hears his mother is recovering, and that she will soon return home. Mamo sets off to find his sister, and learns she now lives with a new husband. When they reunite, Tiggist is happy to have her younger brother back. The two boys remain friends and provide food and new clothes for their old gang members.