Irene Sarmiento: Stray Cats

Stray Cats 
Bughaw / Ateneo de Manila University Press 2023.

Elisa Paz and Raquel Madria have been best friends for as long as they can remember, despite their different family backgrounds. The eighth-graders have adopted alter egos which enable them, as young witches in their own magical world, to be invincible. Then one day Raquel disappears, seemingly swallowed up by the earth. Elisa sets out to find her and is confronted with a reality that she had been ignoring till now. The sheltered upper-middle class girl comes into contact with a world marked by social discrimination, inequality and arbitrary rules. With Oscar Santos, a speaking tomcat, at her side, Elisa roams the streets of Manila in search of her friend. Following in the tradition of magical realism, Irene Sarmiento depicts the rough streetlife in the capital city of the Philippines. She portrays the culture of a country which has often been overlooked and at the same time tells a multilayered story of friendship and self-empowerment. 

German-English Reading: Grade 6+ 
 

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