SWEET SIXTEEN :BOOK REVIEW AND COMMENTARY.

                                                             Sweet Sixteen Book Review And Criticism.         

The Review.

The Author.

Bolaji Abdullah, The Author.

The book was written by Bolaji Abdullah, who was a commissioner of education in Kwara Sate (Nigeria) and a minister of Youths Development And Sports under the administration of the former Nigerian President, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. He was born in 1969. He has written another book after he published this book and the title is On A Platter Of Gold.

He bagged his Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from the renowned University Of Lagos then he obtained his master’s degree from the University of Sussex in United Kingdom as a Chevening Scholar.

He began working at This Day newspaper in 1997 as a cub reporter but left after one year to work at The African Leadership Forum. However, he returned to the same newspaper in 2002 and became the deputy editor of the Newspaper in 2003. Later, he was appointed by Bukola Saraki as a special assistant and later as commissioner of education under the same administration. In 2016, he was made the National publicity secretary of All Progressives Congress (The ruling political party in Nigeria presently) and in 2018, he officially resigned from the position.

Bolaji Abdullah is a family man with eight children. His first born was named Basirat Abdullah who studied Business Economics and Supply Chain Management from the University Of Hull, United Kingdom. It was evident from the way his daughter spoke about him in an interview with the Punch Newspaper on February 26, 2017 that he is man with core family values. Sweet Sixteen undoubtedly was an indication that he is very close to his children; especially the first born whom he must have had in mind while he was writing the book.

Just like Mr. Bello in the book, Bolaji Abdullah too is fond of writing letters to his children, especially his eldest daughter. According to her, she said “My dad always allows us to have our opinions. I remember a letter he wrote to me on my 14^th birthday. In the letter, he said that whatever I chose to become, whether a farmer, lawyer, or a trader, the most important thing was for me to become useful to myself and the society. So he is not really particular about what one chooses to study, as long as what one is studying has positive impact in one’s life and society. She further said “Dad is a very carry father who believes that the most important thing a parent can give his children is education and not just education in terms of formal schooling but in terms of teaching them core values…”

The Book, "Sweet Sixteen".

The Book.

The book has seven chapters with titles at the head of chapter. There are fifty three (53) pages in the book altogether.

Chapter 1“The Letter”.

It introduces the reader to the family background, age and physical appearance of the narrator (Aliya) who was sixteen when she began narrating the story. The narrator is also the heroine in the book and through the first chapter; we were introduced to what goes on in her mind, her family and her school. She said “I am what you might describe as plus size. If you like, you could say I was plump or chubby but never say fat” (page 1). Perhaps Bolaji Abdullah wanted to use this sentence about his imaginary character to encourage people who are ‘big’ or plump to believe in themselves and shouldn’t be weighed down by the society’s negative perspective of their body shape and size.

In the same chapter, she mentioned a boy in her class (Bobo) whom she was in love with or had a crush on (but it turned out later that it was not love but infatuation). The boy gave her a teddy bear on Valentine’s Day and she narrated how her father reacted to the gift and he called it “Greek gift”. Laying emphasis that boys like ‘dumb girls- girls that though they are academically brilliant, but weak emotionally and who would allow themselves to be cajoled into having sex just to prove their love to the boys who has given them a gift.

In the first chapter, the narrator said that there was no difference in the way she felt when she was 14 and 16, despite all the fanfare and camaraderie that society attaches to being sixteen. However, on her sixteenth birthday, she received two gifts from her father; a camera which she fell in love with immediately “oh my God, oh my God…..” she said she’d exclaimed when she saw the camera because “I loved photography and had always wanted to own a camera” (page 8). And the second gift in her birthday parcel was a sixteen page letter, “a page for each year of my life” page 9.

Chapter 2 “The Drive”.

In this chapter, the heroine went down the memory lane, regaling the reader with what happened two years earlier when one Saturday morning; her father came into her room after breakfast and asked if she wanted to have a ride around town with him. She said yes and while they were cruising in her father’s car, she said she saw girls of her age who were running in the middle of the roads, selling miscellaneous things like satchel water and the likes. She told her father how much she envied those girls and wished she could trade places with them “I guess they must be having fun. I mean…the freedom to go anywhere they want and meet different people.”

Her father told her that the girls she saw running and dodging cars just because they want to sell things envied her more and wished desperately that they could be in her position because at the end of the day, they usually earn paltry sum of money for their stress throughout the whole day. He father further told her that he too was from similar background. He said his younger sister and him usually hawked things through the streets when he was younger just to have food in their bellies. This explanation moved Aliya and till the end of the book, she was appreciative of her position.

Aliya briefly mentioned her paternal grandmother and how worried her father about her and countless times when her father had tried to bring her from village to start living with them but refusing to live with them because “I still wonder why we had to stay behind those tall fences all the time. Grandma said the fence made our house look like a prison”

At the end of the drive, she learnt that the drive was pre planned by her father in order to talk to her about menstruation and how to protect herself as girl but he didn’t know how to broach the subject to her in the first place, that was why he took her out for a drive.

Chapter 3“Work”.

 In this chapter, she had finished her exams in school and had returned home to meet her father for the birthday present. She opened the chapter by narrating the ordeal she passed though in making her father’s tea and how she got it in the end with the help of her mother who taught her how to make her father’s tea.

Aliya and her father talked about how one should work honestly and diligently. He commended her on her exceptional performance when she showed him her last report card and how she’d gotten an A in chemistry; a subject that before then was very difficult for her. She told her father about a girl during the last examination who was cheating. Her father asked if the girl was caught but she said no, that the girl was lucky not to be caught. Her father said that was not luck, but bad. Aliya gave the reason why the girl cheated because she spoke with the girl after the exam and the girl opened up to her that her parents wanted her to study what she had no interest in. at this juncture, her father came in to say that it is discouraging for parents to impose things on their children rather than guiding them to let them make their choices. While saying this, he recommended a book for his daughter to read. The book was written by Kahil Gibran. He quoted several places from the book Aliya’s delight and she said she would read it.

Chapter 4“The Ghandi Test”

In this chapter, the heroine (Aliya) regaled the reader with how her father puts her to test and the essence of the test. This test, she called the Ghandi Test after the Indian peace activist, Mahatma Ghandi. The test is that whatever you do is good if you don’t mind people knowing about it, but it is bad if you are afraid of letting people know.

Here, Mr. Bello told Aliya that though if what someone does is good, he or she would be proud of letting others know, yet, he said that there are some people- whom he referred to as animals, without a sense of shame, right or wrong. He said these people are animals because it is only animals that act without a sense of shame, right or wrong which is why animals mate openly and even with their parents without shame.

So Mr. Bello advised his daughter that whatever she intends to do, she must first ask herself if she would be proud of doing it if people get to know about it and to be mindful that people are watching her.

Chapter 5 – DATING.

In this chapter, Aliya suddenly asked her father if she could have a boyfriend now that she’s sixteen. Her father did not immediately respond to her question but took time to talk about other things. It was obvious that he seriously considering her question and thinking of the right answer. In the end, he replied.

He started by telling her to ask herself why she needed a boyfriend and if she was able to give a good answer, she was to question the reason again and again. According to him, if she was able to ask herself why five times and she was able to give tangible reasons each time, then, perhaps she should have a boyfriend. But when Aliya asked herself why, she was unable to give a serious reason beyond the fact that it is what people are doing.

Her father stressed the need for her to carefully tread on matter of the heart- issues that involve her heart and emotion. He said even for adults, matters of the heart are very tricky and challenging how much more for a teenager who barely understands anything about heartbreaks and relationships.

While her father was saying all these, Aliya once again remembered Bobo, and how she thought she loved him and how jealous she felt whenever she sees him with other girls until he travelled abroad without informing her. She realized that it was not love that she felt for him, but infatuation.

Her father concluded his lesson on relationship with her by telling her to take her time and patiently wait for the right time because in the end, everything in life has a price and a price to pay for a particular want or desire may permanently mar one’s life forever.

Chapter 6- STEREOTYPE.

This chapter was influenced by a telecast where the deadly terrorist sect Boko Haram, just bombed a market in the North Eastern part of Nigeria. The whole family felt sad about the attack and condemned the act.

Aliya asked her father if it true that all Muslims will go to hell because of what a girl in her school always say about non-Christians. According to her, the girl was always saying that all Muslims will one day go to hell but her father told her that the girl was wrong in condemning other people’s faith, religion, ethnicity, tribe, race, language or origin. Her father made her understand that the girl probably hated her because she was always coming first in the class and that.

Aliya herself discovered that she was stereotypical by belittling people from other religion and atheists, believing that her religion is the only one that God endorses. She was sorry for this and decided to be better. Moreover, she hates the girl, who condemns her religion based on the fact that Boko Haram claims to be fighting for Islam but after her father’s speech, she realized that she was guilty of stereotype as well by judging and hating the girl. Her mother suggested that she might make friends with the girl – show her love because love is capable changing bad people.

Last Chapter- BEAUTY.

Her father told her a story of a black man who nursed the same man who enslaved him and his people back to health instead of abandoning the slave master to death after their ship wrecked on an abandoned island one day. Despite the fact that the slave master was very bad to this black slave and that as a result of the badness of this man, many lives had been destroyed. Yet, this black man didn’t pay the slaver back in his own coin. Rather, he brought him back to life from the brink of death and this single act of mercy changed the slave master forever as he eventually.

What really brought about this story is that Aliya was on her bed one day when her father entered and called her beauty. She declined, saying that she is not beautiful. At least, she doesn’t feel that way. Besides, she said there was a girl in her school who calls her FAT. She obviously hated this and hated the girl as well. Her father condemned the girl’s act and said it is called body shaming. He said that true beauty lies within the content of a person’s character and that it is wrong to body shame other people.

He advised her to develop strong self-esteem that will make her live above people’s ridicules and negative comments about her. He further stated that true beauty is in the way we help and show kindness to other people even if those people are incapable of paying us back in cash or kind.

Characters In The Book.

Aliya: She is the sixteen year old heroine of the book.  She is also the narrator of the book and much of the things in the books centers around her. She is a major character in the book. As a person, she is brilliant, diligent, quiet and easy going despite the fact that some mean students find it hard to accept her. Needless to say, she was closer to her father and seems to take much after her father (in character) and probably after her mother in looks.

Mr. Bello: 

After Aliya herself, Mr. Bello is another Major character in the book that features in every chapter.  He is depicted as a loving and caring father who sees the moral upbringing of his daughter as his primary assignment. Though he was too busy working to stay around for long, yet, he devoted his time at home to educating his daughter. He was not a typical example of an African father who shuns the company of his children. Typical African fathers are known for being harsh with their children and even their wives but Mr. Bello was a perfect example of what a father should be.

Mrs. Bello:

She is a good wife and mother.  In the book, she was portrayed as a person who gets angry easily and she doesn’t care to hide her anger whenever she is angry. Therefore, she can be seen as an honest person. She supports her husband’s decisions and takes care of their house and daughter in the absence of her husband. However, she was too detached from the upbringing of their only child. She largely left the bringing up to her husband alone whereas the psychological and emotional development of a child is the responsibility of both parents. She is a minor character in the book.

Bobo:  

He is Aliya’s admirer and crush. His full name was Adetokunbo. He is a minor character in the book because he barely appeared more than twice in the whole book. He travelled to Ireland without informing Aliya who felt broken hearted at the departure and not being informed.

THE CRITICISM OF THE BOOK.

One of the major issues with the book is grammatical inconsistencies in some pages. This fault of course does not lie with the author, but with the editor(s). For a book of such importance and magnitude, special care should have been taken to ensure that such slights are not found in the book. Of course, there is no perfect book but the grammatical misappropriations in the book are quite obvious (for readers who are meticulous).

Unfortunately,  I will not be able to start pointing them out now. 

Also, it is noteworthy to observe that the book says very little or nothing about the mother. Though Aliya said that she was closer to her father than her mom, yet, it is somehow off that her mother was not even for once taken into her confidence. Some readers will find this almost impossible. A child who can be that close to her father cannot be that far from her mother in as much as it is not a broken home. Whatever the writer has in mind before he excluded the mother is not really good at all. It gives a chauvinistic impression about the father. It makes the man (Mr. Bello) looks so perfect that his perfection perfectly mirrors the imperfections of his wife which reduces her to an insignificant factor in the matters affecting their only child. I expect to see this mistake corrected in the author’s subsequent works.

100 Questions On Sweet Sixteen

. At what age did Aliyah started menstruating

2. At what age did Aliyah started wearing bra

3.Who told Mr. Bello that Aliyah have started menstruating

4. Who said this “do you know that too much sugar affect ladies doing menstruation?

5. What is the color of Aliyah’s mug

6. What is Mr Bello’s best color

7. Who said this “Pay me so that I can teach you the secret to making his tea ”

8. The letter Mr Bello sent to Aliyah on her 16th birthday was based on the outings they had

9. Who is Aunty Gigs

10. Who is Aunty Molara

11. Common sex is everywhere, who said this

12. Don’t tell me you don’t Netflix, who said this

13. Who wanted his son to be a lawyer

14. What was Aliyah’s first Ambition

15. What did she later concluded on becoming

16. Who is an Asthmatic patient

17. What was
Aliyah’s chemistry grade

18. Why did Aliyah’s friend cheat during the physics exam

19. I don’t think she is happy with what she did, who said this

20. Parents shouldn’t compare their children with each other said by who?

1. Who is the protagonist in the book sweet sixteen?
   ANS. Aliya
2. What was the introductory statement on Aliya’s 16th birthday letter?
   ANS.”How time flies”
3. In the department of rascality and smartness who was the gold medalist?
   ANS. Akin.
4. To Aliya what is the meaning of being dumb?
   ANS. Not being intelligent.
5. What is the title of chapter one of sweet sixteen?
   ANS. The letter.
6. What is Aliya’s mother profession?
   ANS. Nursing.
7. What is the name of Aliya’s father?
   ANS. Mr. Bello
8. To Aliya being called a child is the same thing as?
   ANS. Stupid.
9. At the birth of Aliya what was he fathers profession?
   ANS. Journalism.
10. The only thing Aliya’s father thought was worth celebrating was?
    ANS. Achievements not birthday.
11. The name of the writer of sweet sixteen is ?
    ANS. Bolaji Abdullahi.
12. What name disgusted Aliya most?
    ANS. You could call her chubby, plump but not fat.
13. At What age did Aliya start wearing bra?
    ANS. At the age of ten.
14. At what age did Aliya get into secondary school?
    ANS. 12
15. What was Aliyas perception about her roommate Grace?
    ANS. She was a nice and generous person.
16. What was the proof that Aliya was serious in her chemistry for the term?
    ANS. It reflected in her continuous Assessment and she made an A at the end of the term.
17. What kind of girls did Mr. Bello say boys like?
    ANS. Dumb girls.
18. According to sweet sixteen what is the main aim of chess game?
    ANS.To capture opponents king.
19. Why did Aliya not return Tokunbos teddy bear which he gave her on Valentine’s day?
    ANS. She thought she won’t do that without hurting him.
20. Aliya’s religion was?
    ANS. Islamic religion.
21. What is the title of Aliyas 16th birthday letter?
    ANS. ”Letter to my daughter”

1. What was Aliya’s sixteenth birthday present?
   ANS. A portable digital Camera.
2. What was so special about Aliya’s 16th birthday letter?
   ANS. It had 16 pages and each page for each year of her life.
3. What was Aliya doing when grace returned from the bathroom on Aliya 16th birthday?
   ANS. Dressing her bed.
4. What are the definitions Mr. Bello give as the meaning of dumb girls?
   ANS. A girl who needs to live up to peoples’s expectation
5. What statement does Aliya father make to end discussions during visiting days?
   ANS. ”By the way do you still have your inhalers”
6. What sickness was Aliya suffering from?
   ANS. Asthma.
7. What advice did Aliya’s father give to her when she asked if she could return the teddy to bobo.
   ANS. “Well is a decision you have to make for yourself”.
8. Mention two incidence that stopped Aliya from returning Bobo’s teddy to him?.
   ANS.The duty master approaching them in their mode of discussion and secondly tokunbo travelling to Ireland.
9. What is Bobo’s real name ?
   ANS. Tokunbo.
10. She felt she could be charged for the number of words she spoke who is this?
    ANS. Grace.
11. What surprised Aliya about her 16th birthday letter?
    ANS. She thought her dad copied Maya Angelou work with the title “letter to my daughter”, but was surprised to see her dad copied only the title and wrote the letter in his words.
12. Apart from Public relations job another occupation considered by Aliya’s mother for her father is?
    ANS. Stand up Comedy.
13. Who is the king of boys according to the novel?
    ANS. Akin.
14. What did Aliya’s friends tell her about having male siblings?
    ANS.They are annoying.
15. What was the name of Aliya’s mathematics teacher?
    ANS. Miss. Salako.
16. “Must you always be a jerk, she asked menacingly” who was this statement referring to and why?
    ANS. To Akin because he pronounced mensuration as menstruation which made the whole class burst into laughter.
17. What was people’s perception about Grace?
    ANS. People thought she was a snob because she did not like talking.
18. Aliya’s birthday gift while in school was mostly given to her by?
    ANS. The principal.
19. What was written on the teddy bears heart shaped embossement given to Aliya by Tokunbo?
    ANS. I love you.
20. To perform well in the terminal examination what was Aliya’s plan?
    ANS.To improve her question answering speed by taking off five minutes allowed to each question.
21. What was the title of Aliya’s 12th birthday letter.
    ANS .Happy birthday my first lady, remember only God is greater than you.
22. At primary school,Aliya’s father was working with a?