The Nigeria Prize for Literature-winning children novel ‘Boom Boom’ is now available for readers outside of Nigeria. The book written by Jude Idada is published by Swift Press.
‘Boom Boom’ is narrated by Osaik, an eight-year-old who is one of two children born of the marital union of JJ and Erese. The other child is a daughter nicknamed ‘Boom Boom’, and is also not the sister Osaik had hoped for due to no fault of hers.
Osaik discovers that his mother and sister, whom he had pestered his parents to have because he was desperate for a playmate, are always sick and in severe pain.
His inquisitive nature leads him to find out that his father and mother should never have got married. Reason: His father has the AC genotype and his mother is SS, meaning she has the sickle cell anaemia disease. The couple’s luck produces Osaik, with the AS genotype. Their second attempt yields a daughter with the SC genotype, a milder form of the sickle cell disease, but which also comes with sorrow and tears.
The marriage that should have been filled with joy is populated by sadness and its cousins. Love, which should be a beautiful thing, becomes torturing and the marriage institution the opposite of what it should be.
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JJ takes Boom Boom to London to try out a new form of treatment, which is expected to free her from pain and liberates her from a life of inhibitions. There he receives a phone call, which shatters his world, his worst fear about his wife has come to pass: At 30, the Grim Reaper claims its own. He is now left with a healthy Osaik and a sick but hopeful Boom Boom. Will she live or will she leave?
Though presented as a children book, ‘Boom Boom’ is a cross over book that will easily attract adult readers. Its dramatic and fast-paced nature is enough to soak anyone in the world of loss, faith, hope, the limits of love, sacrifice, friendship, loyalty and ties. With agony, relief, anxiety, serenity, despair and hope dancing on the pages of this book, it will without effort evoke emotional response.
Hiding under the voice of a child, Idada provides all the medical information about the disease and its management and eradication. The child-narrator offers Idada the latitude to give vital information in an engaging and entertaining manner and ultimately succeeds in modifying behaviour and shaping opinion.
Idada’s use of Kompa, Osaik’s dog, is very creative. Osaik can read the dog’s inner thoughts and translate the thoughts to words. It is the dog who describes their mother’s passing as “…a star in the sky looking down at (them)… ready to answer (their call) …anytime …” The dog also gives the book the magical realism touch and will sure make it more appealing to kids. Imagine a dog that can talk! And when the dog talks, it also brings solutions to challenges being faced by the family. Who will not like such a dog?
Characterisation is top notch in this award-winning work. Descriptive narration is exotic and delivers vivid imageries— helping the reader to feel the pain of the characters and absorb the messages therein.
With a suspense-filled narration, Idada sheds light on this challenging health condition like no work of fiction has done.
The themes covered in the book include love, sickle cell, its symptoms, its challenges, the choice of spouses, stigmatisation and a possible cure for the sickle cell anaemia.