The Bitter Side of Sweet, by Tara Sullivan

One of my young readers suggested that my own story-in-the-works reminded him of The Bitter Side of Sweet, by Tara Sullivan. I’d be grateful to write a story as well-researched, well-paced, and compellingly presented—a story so real that it begs to be digested and then used to promote change.

I’d also like to have a title that so perfectly introduces a book. There is nothing as sweetly satisfying as a chocolate confection, yet the raw cocoa powder is usually horribly bitter—even intolerable without sugar added to it. And so it is with the production and harvesting of cacao. This book describes the intolerable treatment of children enslaved on a cacao plantation: children living as slaves and forced to harvest and process the raw beans. Children who are nearly starved, savagely abused, and locked away from any chance of escape. The children’s story is the bitter side of sweet chocolate.

The children’s heroic and selfless determination to escape together represented the sweet side of bitter in this novel. I’d recommend to it mature children and adults alike.

I appreciated the author’s instructive epilogue about chocolate production and fair trade chocolate, her exposition that much of the world’s chocolate comes from cacao produced by enslaved children, and her concern that cacao farmers have a margin of profit so small that they barely make enough money to eat.

The perfect fit between title and book not only makes the book easy to recall, but it also helps focus the reader’s attention on the central premise of the book. It’s a witness to the value of a well-chosen title.