This book was fantastic when I read the adult version, and it's just as good as a young-adult version! Very glad to have had the opportunity to read it again, and I'll be introducing it to my students.

This book was absolutely amazing! I believe it's a book that we can all learn from in more ways than one. I thought the book would be incredible if you wanted to read about an original story. I highly recommend!! Thanks for the copy!

I enjoyed this book because of it's writing style, unique topic, and the fact that it really provided a thought-provoking experience. Recommended for readers who want to read slowly so as to take time to process.

Sang Ly lives on the edge of a dump with her husband and their sick baby boy. They make their living by picking through the trash and collecting the recyclables to sell. But Sang Ly dreams of a better life away from the dump. She knows she needs to learn to read to have any chance to make her dreams happen, so she asks the grumpy and often inebriated rent collector, Sopeap Sin who reluctantly agrees to teach her. Sopeap had once been a teacher, but was forced to stop during the Cambodian revolution when the Khmer Rouge put an end to education and slaughtered intellectuals, including teachers. Sang Ly learns quickly and despite Sopeap Sin's impatience, Sang Ly's world and imagination are expanded as she learns to appreciate literature and stories. There is danger in the dump, Sopeap Sin has a big secret, and Sang Ly is desperate to find the answer to her son's illness. This book really opens the reader's eyes into the harsh reality of the lives of people who live in dumps. The book is compelling, interesting, and I really liked it.

The premise really pulled me in, but the writing felt very distracting. I couldn't understand the POV, which hops from kid to adult. Wish this had come from lived experience as opposed to a white gaze. DNF.

When one reads a good book, you will enter into the beauty of the world of more books you want to explore and learn from. The author has captured that well with one of the MCs. I have seen places like this, and they really do live complicated lives — it is indeed gut-wrenching, and some might feel hopeless. However, I am glad the author captured how books can change one's perspective in life and influence others to make a change.

Wise words: "We can discover hope, build courage, and find peace even in the most difficult places."

I give this book 3 stars and recommend it to middle-grade teachers as required reading for their students. Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of the most humbling books I have read in a while. Sang Ly lives with her husband Ki and song Nisay in Stung Mancheay, Cambodia's largest garbage dump. They live in a shelter made from tarps and canvas, and they make their money by finding scraps to resell. Life is a struggle and having enough money to pay the rent collector, Sopeap.

When Sang Ly finds a discarded children's book, Sopeap reveals her past as a teacher and hesitantly makes a deal to teach Sang Ly how to read. Sang Ly falls in love with stories and is filled with hope that education may be the key to unlock a different life for her family.

The ending to this story was impacting and satisfying. I do think the pacing and some of the narration would make this a dense book for some young readers to get through. However, I can see this being such a valuable discussion starter for the right reading group or classroom. Middle school readers will have a whole new perspective opened to them through this book.

#TheRentCollector #NetGalley

This story is adapted from it's original version, into a young reader edition. The story takes place in a dump called Stung Meanchy, located in Cambodia. People live in the dump and earn their wages by foraging through piles 9f garbage. They even pay rent to live among the trash. Sang Ly, wants to learn to read, so that her young son, has another of life. She doesn't always want to live in the dump. The rent collector, has secrets of her own, and comes across as uncaring., but Sang Ly sees the potential of so much more.

This book was beautiful. Haunting, hopeful, sad and powerful. I loved it.
It began so sad and dArk and hopeless. But through the power of a book and a desire to learn to read, lives were changes and like the phoenix rising from the ashes, life and hope rose from the ashes of the dump.
Beautiful, powerful book.

Since I enjoyed this read, I gave it a 4 hearts rating. The writing is okay but the story is very rich. It has characters who anyone can relate to. Also, the stories in the story were very interesting. The story highlights that reading or education can help elevate your status in life. Reading is magic that can do a lot of things. I am more open to reading short stories from other countries because of it. The ending was abrupt but it was satisfying in its own way. This read could be read by anyone, it is informative and would make you reflect and be thankful for everything that you have and whatever situation you are in.

A true example of the power of reading and how it can open doors for true change, if you just give it a chance. As I currently work with Sixth Form age students, I will also be investigating the original story too.

This was a really lovely story about how the love of reading can open doors and make even the bleakest of life moments can still be made easier when you know what you're walking into.
This middle-grade adaptation is based on Camron Wright's novel with the same title The Rent Collector, is about a young woman who lives in a large Cambodian dump with her husband and young, ill son. Although it's unfortunate that her son is sick throughout the whole story, it's actually about the young woman, Sang Ly.
After being gifted a picture book that was found in the garbage she looks at the pictures and pretends to entertain her little boy with a story of her own based on what she saw. But she had the deep desire to learn to read. One day when the dump's rent collector, Sopeap, comes around at the end of the month and spots the book in Sang Ly's things and snags it away without much of a word. Stung Meanchey isn't known to have educated garbage pickers, so it was very much a surprise when, Sang Ly learns that Sopeap can open up an opportunity that she never thought possible, after making multiple pleas she manages to convince Sopeap into teach her to read.
Throughout the numerous lessons, many life events happen to Sang Ly and her little family, but because of her new-found knowledge she was able to navigate more confidently and learned how the lessons from Sopeap's books caused her to have more questions about life rather than help her seek answers..
I thought this was a very touching story and think it'd be a very good way of teaching children that even in the worst of life circumstance, like living in a dump, can still have bright sides. That one isn't so much alone unless you allow it to be that way, and that people work together can achieve big things. Plus, reminding them that learning to read is a good thing even if those book reports can seem like a chore 😉
- K

Touching book that has you walking in others’ shoes…beautiful story of the importance of reading and the joy it brings. Excellent Lit circle choice for middle grade or high school!

ARC provided from NetGalley! Thank you!

This story is written beautifully for young readers! While I haven't read the adult book, I loved the plot and felt as if it was a great engaging adaption for younger readers. The book is empowering and incredibly powerful, even if the message and harshness of the situation seemed less hopeless as it actually is. I loved the representation of Cambodia and the message this book conveyed about hope and never giving up. It emphasizes the power of literature, a message that is strong and will stick in the minds of young readers.

3.5/5

Perhaps it's because it is edited for young readers, that the tone of the book sounded a bit off. It took me some time to hook to the story but i am glad i kept reading because once it happened , the book was unput-downable. I liked the way the stories were mixed into the narrative and all the lessons that Sang-ly learned. Of all, i loved Sopeap Sun 's story as it is revealed gradually. Maybe it was too slow and little too late when we find her story in this book that impacted my early interest. Overall a good story , but writing could be little better.

So grateful to have had the opportunity to read this book prior to its release… The Rent Collector by @authorcamronwright opened my eyes to painful and horrendous Cambodian history and circumstances that one couldn’t imagine finding beauty in…but it’s there when you look and listen to the messages of the story (btw this is based on true events) the love and the hope will take your breath away.

I always love books that talk about the power of "story". In this book, reading and "story" seem to be the only way to escape the harshness of the reality of living in poverty. Sang Ly recognizes this power and uses her determination and will to learn to read and deliver herself and her family from the harsh life in which they find themselves.

Wow. This book was amazing. The story was so engaging that I had to force myself to put it down so I could get some work done. I learned so much about Cambodia, its history, and the struggles of its people.
Sang Ly and her family live in abject poverty in a garbage dump in Cambodia. They eke out a living by picking through the garbage to find anything they can sell. Life is hard. Sang Ly’s husband, Ki, is robbed and severally beaten after a successful day of picking. Their son Nisay is critically ill and they must spend hard earned money on medicines for him – medicines that only work for a short time. But there is hope. And that hope comes in the form of a surely rent collector.
This is a beautifully told story of poverty, family, perseverance, redemption, and the power of literacy. But mostly it is a story of hope. I did not realize until I’d finished that this young adult adaptation is based on a true story. That fact makes it even more compelling. Highly recommended. Thanks to NetGalley and Shadow Mountain Publishing for giving me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Rent Collector
Adapted for Young Readers from the Best-Selling Novel
by Camron Wright
Pub Date 05 Apr 2022
Shadow Mountain Publishing, Shadow Mountain
Middle Grade | Teens & YA





I am reviewing a copy of The Rent Collector through Shadow Mountain Publishing and Netgalley:




Sang Ly lives at Cambodia’s city dump and is grateful she can help earn a living for her family by sifting through the trash for recyclables and things which can be repaired and sold. On good days she is able to earn enough to buy food for her family. She needs enough good days so she can pay the rent collector, Sopeap—a grumpy old woman who shows no mercy and who is willing to evict any tenant who can’t pay their rent on time.





When Sang Ly can’t earn enough money to pay the rent for a month she fears her family will have to leave the dump and their shanty home a place where her only possessions can be carried in two hands. What she doesn’t know is a discarded children’s book found among the mounds of trash would save her. When Sopeap sees the book lying on Sang Ly’s cardboard bed, her mood changes. Sang Ly offers her the book if she is allowed to keep her family at the dump.




Before long an unlikely friendship develops between the two women, and Sang Ly learns that Sopeap knows how to read something Sang Ly has always wanted to learn. Being able to read could transform Sang Ly’s world beyond the predictable confines of the dump and lead to a future with possibilities and hope.



But the rent collector has a secret and tragic past, one that will not be easy for Sang Ly to navigate. With the help of her supportive husband, Ki Lim, and a helpful and humorous boy, Lucky Fat, Sang Ly embarks on a life-changing journey to give her young son, Nisay, a better life and future.



I give The Rent Collector five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

From the beautiful cover to the book summary, I was so amped to read this book and it largely provided me what I was looking for. I found the narrative a little awkward but I think kids will really respond to this story since it will be a window into another culture for many of them.