I Am a Taxi

I Am a Taxi.  By Deborah Ellis. Groundwood Books, 2006. 208 pages. $8.12

Sometimes, school can feel like jail, but imagine spending your childhood in a real prison!  That’s precisely what happens to twelve-year-old Diego in Deborah Ellis’ book, I Am a Taxi.  After both of his parents are wrongfully convicted of a crime they did not commit, Diego and his three-year-old sister Corina are sent to live in a Bolivian women’s prison with their mother.  Unlike the prisoners, however, children like to Diego are allowed to leave the prison during the day, only to return at night.  With this limited freedom, Diego becomes a “taxi”: he earns small amounts of money running errands for the other prisoners, sending messages, buying food and other goods, and so forth.  Diego is also allowed to go back and forth between the women’s and men’s prisons, which allows him some contact with his father. The money Diego earns helps his parents to pay for their own food and the rent the government makes them pay for their prison cells; without his contributions, the family would be forced to sleep on the ground and go without food.  In this strange new world, Diego is forced to grow up fast and learn to take care of himself.  While these events sound remarkable, they are based on actual conditions in the real-life prisons of Bolivia.

Smart and resourceful, Diego adapts amazingly well to his new life.  He makes good money and earns the trust of the adult prisoners.  But one day, Diego is lured into a trap that will separate him from his family and threaten his very life.  Drawn by the prospect of making serious money, money that could help his family, Diego and his best friend Mando are tricked into joining up with a group of “cocaleros”: cocaine producers and traffickers who live outside the law.  Diego and Mando soon find themselves deep in the heart of the Bolivian jungle, kept prisoner and forced to work like slaves in the production of the dangerous drug.  Diego and Mando endure hardships and tragedies together, wondering if they will ever see their families again.

Ellis’ fast-paced, action-packed book shows the difficulties faced by children from other societies, perhaps reminding us that we may have more to be thankful for than we sometimes realize.  Like Diego, children who experience such traumas miss out on many of the normal experiences of childhood; even the repetitive routine of school and homework would seem like a relief to them compared to what they must tolerate on a daily basis.  This is a story about a boy who must become a man before his time, whether he is ready or not.  As you read this book, you will grow to admire Diego for his strength and his smarts.  Ellis’ book, by turns harrowing and inspiring, is one that you won’t soon forget.