Title: Finding Chika by Mitch Albom
My Rating: 5 Stars
Publisher: Sphere
Source: Pansing Books
Goodreads Synopsis:
Chika Jeune was born three days before the devastating earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. She spent her infancy in a landscape of extreme poverty, and when her mother died giving birth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to The Have Faith Haiti Orphanage that Albom operates in Port Au Prince.
With no children of their own, the forty-plus children who live, play, and go to school at the orphanage have become family to Mitch and his wife, Janine. Chika’s arrival makes a quick impression. Brave and self-assured, even as a three-year-old, she delights the other kids and teachers. But at age five, Chika is suddenly diagnosed with something a doctor there says, “No one in Haiti can help you with.”
Mitch and Janine bring Chika to Detroit, hopeful that American medical care can soon return her to her homeland. Instead, Chika becomes a permanent part of their household, and their lives, as they embark on a two-year, around-the-world journey to find a cure. As Chika’s boundless optimism and humor teach Mitch the joys of caring for a child, he learns that a relationship built on love, no matter what blows it takes, can never be lost.
Told in hindsight, and through illuminating conversations with Chika herself, this is Albom at his most poignant and vulnerable. Chika is a celebration of a girl, her adoptive guardians, and the incredible bond they formed—a devastatingly beautiful portrait of what it means to be a family, regardless of how it is made.
Picking this book up meant one thing, I am not ending it without crying for sure. Mitch Albom does that to you if you don’t know it already. I’ve read all his books and each one of them has affected me in one way or another. Finding Chika was no different.
Finding Chika felt truly personal. It was Mitch’s own experience with Chika- who is from his orphanage in Haiti. We follow the story of little Chika who’s feisty and never shy in expressing herself, battled with a tumour in her head and despite having months to live, she was never dull or neither did she succumb to her illness.
Its heartbreaking to see how invested Mitch and Janine was in Chika’s life, and how they take the loss of Chika. It’s really painful. Mitch’s writing is profound, he didn’t have to try so hard to make me cry. He’s effortless like that.
This book taught me to be more grateful. I mean, I’ve always told myself to be more grateful and count my blessings and more, but once in a while I slip up and books like these will remind me again on how lucky I am to be doing what I’m doing.
Chika is a beautiful lesson, this book is yet another masterpiece by the master story teller himself. It is now available in all good bookstores. Do not miss the chance in reading about Chika, it’s so good you wouldn’t want to miss it. Thank you bookalings for reading, till we meet again, stay safe!
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