The Reading Dragons @UWCSEA East discussion

Rainbow Troops by Andrea Hirata.

The Rainbow Troops: A Novel

It was a very unique meeting of the PA East book clubbers, when we met to talk about Andrea Hirata’s Indonesian bestseller, Rainbow Troops. We were privileged to have three members of the schools’ Indonesian community to come and join us for this session. Any, Dede and Dian provided personal insights into the book and the society described within. They completed our experience with the delicious Indonesian foods that they generously contributed to our potluck finger-food lunch.

Originally written in Bahasa, and titled Laskar Pelangi, Andrea Hirata’s book has become the most popular Indonesian book. It was also adapted into a screenplay and the movie has been shown at major international film festivals.

Rainbow Troops is the autobiographical tale of the author and his nine classmates and their fight to be educated. It is set in the tin-rich island of Belitong, against the backdrop of an exploitative mining conglomerate. Andrea and his classmates are amongst the marginalised and poor families on the island, with no access to the riches that were being mined on their soil. Their only access to education is a small school, with two teachers, and a blackboard.

With the school under a constant threat of closure for lack of resources, the ten students lovingly labelled the Rainbow Troops by their teacher, are constantly battling the weather, the education board, and their destiny, to be able to go to the only school they have. Cycling through crocodile-infested waters, walking with barely any footwear, wearing shirts with more buttons missing than closed, Hirata’s book is filled with gutsy, determined and yet, fun-loving students. They write poetry, teach trignometry to each other, dream of John Lennon, cycle to the village shop to buy chalk for their blackboard, and fall in love.

An inspiring and uplifting story, simply written, filled with memorable characters and a bittersweet ending, Rainbow Troops is a book that every student should read. It is a little book about a small school, that teaches life’s big lessons.

The book clubbers were amazed and humbled by this book, we laughed and cried as we read it. We marvelled at the spirit to strive and succeed in people so young. We hope to encourage more students in our school to read this incredible story.

The Laskar Pelangi experience would have been incomplete without Any, Dede and Dian. Our many thanks to them for joining us in this book club meeting.
- Neetu Aggarwal.