In the midst of the appalling tragedy that is HIV/AIDs in the African continent, ten year old Benedict is getting on with his life as ten year old boys the world over do. Both his parents are 'late', and with his two siblings and two cousins, who also have 'late' parents, he has been taken under the wing of his grandparents. The family has just moved from Tanzania to Swaziland for his Baba's work. Mama, or Angel as she is also known, is desperately trying to get her cake baking business going, which is not easy while attempting to settle into a new place.

Benedict is the type of child who will find something good or positive in any situation, and for him, his new home is a paradise. A beautiful garden rich with lizards, birds and butterflies, and with the recent tragedies in his young life, it doesn't take much for him to escape into his own special world. As an outsider at school, a kwerekwere, he finds solace in the garden, in reading King Solomon's Mines to improve his language knowledge and generally getting to know his new environment. Which includes the search for the buried treasure in aforementioned book Benedict is convinced is buried nearby. Being an inquisitive boy, determined to be good for his grandparents, and where death from HIV/AIDS is an everyday occurrence, he very quickly endears himself to the local funeral directors. Lots of doors open to Benedict and his family as a result of his charm, and with his open mind and his open heart, yet little or no understanding of the adult world around him, he is a happy little lad.

Despite the vast majority of the book being narrated through Benedict's eyes, the reader gets a very keen sense of the world the adults are living and surviving in - Benedict's grandparents with the responsibility of five grandchildren, the neighbours with their family, Mavis who works for Baba and Mama and has her own grief to deal with, the young man who looks after the animals, as well as a girl at his school.. Not a great deal happens in this book, and even though I kept waiting for some plot development, it didn't matter that it didn't. This is a story about people looking for the good and the happy in the lives they are leading and finding it. It is colourful, lively, warm and charming, and beautifully depicted in the cover.

The style is undeniably a bit choppy and rough, but it is so rare to find a book written about and taking place in my beloved Swaziland. Reading this was like an extended vacation back home. A little confusing, with some gaps in understanding and interest, but enjoyable and comfortingly familiar.

Was given this as a present. Really glad that I read it

I enjoyed reading this. the first one by the same author was better, but this wasn't bad either. There's something about reading other cultures and customs that makes reading even more worthwhile. And I really liked the main character, Benedict.

In this companion to [b:Baking Cakes in Kigali|6088236|Baking Cakes in Kigali|Gaile Parkin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1442364849s/6088236.jpg|6536414], Angel's ten-year-old grandson (slash adopted son) takes the stage as narrator. Benedict's interests lie not in cakes and problem-solving but in animals and insects and worrying about the fact that he's the family's oldest boy and thus has more responsibilities.

When I read Baking Cakes in Kigali, I struggled with the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink end of it: Angel is faced with problem after problem after problem, and then she solves problem after problem after problem. It left me rather exhausted and feeling as though I had whiplash. Here Parkin takes a different tack: while she works in a number of significant problems (often to serve as lessons), neither Angel nor Benedict is expected to solve them all. A woman mourning her long-dead stillborn child; a girl being abused by a teacher; AIDS; Angel's struggle to get her cake-baking business off the ground in a new country; a woman offered a marriage proposal as a second wife; the unwelcome mother-in-law who's moved in; a young boy teased for his lisp...and so on and so forth. It's still a little kitchen-sink-y, but because some of the pressure is off Angel & co. to solve things, it's not as overwhelming.

Swaziland, where this book is set, has a tragically high incidence of AIDS, and AIDS plays a role—albeit a relatively minor one—in Benedict's experience throughout the book. That minor role fits to tone of both books (pack in a lot of big issues but keep it light), although I had some questions about it. Hoopoes is set in 2001, which we know because the characters see the World Trade Center fall on television, but some of them also have cell phones, which is possible but not super likely for 2001...I was left with the suspicion that it's set in 2001 largely to make Benedict's ignorance of all things AIDS related more realistic.

Altogether this was an easier read for me than Baking Cakes in Kigali, though my interest in Parkin's future books (theory: next one will be narrated by Josephine—definitely seemed like she was being set up for a future book) is passive. A little too much reliance on aggressive cuteness; e.g., repeated mentions of how Angel 'isn't an educated somebody' and Benedict's limited ten-year-old understanding of what things are. Still, I'm glad to see that Parkin can play with structure and setup, as that'll allow her more range in future books.

The author really enjoys using the deus ex machina plot device. In fact, it feels like this novel was written solely for the purpose of illustrating what that particular plot device entails (the author also writes textbooks, so this is entirely possible).

The main character is an incredibly thick 10 year old Gary Lou (male Mary Sue) who is kicked out of the room whenever "plot" takes place so that there is plenty of opportunity for misunderstanding. I realize that a lot of literary novels focus on internal struggles and a character focused novel as opposed to the "traditional" plot driven story, but removing plot as much as possible from your book won't automatically make it literary fiction.

Other complaints I have involve the way that the dialogue is written. Most of the characters in the novel speak English as a second or third language, some don't speak it at all. We all appreciate that when someone is talking in a foreign language they tend to have particular grammatical tics that are based on the grammar of their mother tongue. The author has attempted to show this throughout the dialogue in the book, even when the characters are speaking their home language. Just because my grammar isn't perfect when I speak French or Afrikaans doesn't mean that my English grammar is equally incorrect. It ends up having the effect of making all of the characters sound like idiots. It's a problem when a character with a phD is represented as being unable to speak his own language properly.

This is a sweet, charming story centred on ten year old Benedict, whose family has just moved to Swaziland from Rwanda by way of Tanzania. Benedict really is a delight. He’s curious, a real nature lover, and warm hearted, always trying to do the right thing and make life better for those around him. But he is a child and doesn’t always fully understand everything he sees and hears. This can make for some amusing moments, and some potentially embarrassing moments too.
Behind this pleasant facade things are a little darker. Benedict’s Mama and Papa are actually his grandparents. His mother has died of AIDS and his father was the victim of violence. Benedict also has new siblings; cousins who are also orphaned and is about to gain a new sister, a previously unknown child of his uncle whose mother is dying of AIDS. In another plot line, one that happens mostly off page, a young schoolgirl is being abused by a male teacher.
The book also included some glimpses into the laws, culture and customs of Swaziland. The hostility towards those of other ethnicities or who were born outside Swaziland features, as does the treatment of women. Laws that effectively blamed AIDS on women and attempted to force them to be chaste were one troubling example. The ability of men to force women to marry them against their will was another. These aspects were only lightly touched on, mostly in the background of the story. But for me they added interest and depth to the book, making it more than just a light pleasant read.