Rubina Ali, who played the youngest Latika in Slumdog Millionaire, will be publishing a book about her life, according to the AP. Called Slumgirl Dreaming: MyJourney to the Stars, the book will be published on July 16th by Transworld Publishers and Random House Children's Books. It will tell the story of the 9-year-old's life in the Mumbai slum in which she has spent her life and her trip to the Oscars this year. In a statement, the publisher said: "Now she tells her own incredible story, fromplaying marbles with her friends beside the sewers of Garib Nagar inMumbai, to dancing along to the Bollywood films she and her familywatch on their old television set." All royalties will go to Ali and the French medical-aid charity, Médecins du Monde.
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I know people will joke about how it’s silly for a nine-year-old to write a memoir, but this girl has certainly been through more in her nine years than I have in my 26.
It’s not that she hasn’t led an interesting, difficult life–it’s that it probably won’t be her writing. While the stories and facts of her life are undoubtedly worth a memoir, reading a book isn’t just about the plot–and if the storytelling, structural, and lyrical aspects of the book are coming from someone else, it’s not really a memoir. It’s one thing for a famous person to have a writing partner; it’s another thing when a person writes the book for the subject. She’s only nine–I would love it if she had the opportunity to record her own life in her own way when she was capable of writing such material herself. Of course, she is in the news now, so I understand why the book is coming out now.
I don’t see why Ali doesn’t get all the profits. She obviously could use it right now. As much as she has been through, she still has not experienced life yet. Who wants to read a life sucks memoir. I bet it would be worth reading after we know she makes it over the hump or not. Maybe like age 30. This book will just be more poverty porn. Wasn’t Rubina functionally illiterate until recently?
Sam-
You’re likely absolutely on the nose about that…I just don’t see a nine year old “writing” a memoir herself and really being her voice…even with a partner.
Go on Rubina. For almost 9 years your luck as exploited you. Now its your time to exploit your luck!