Even though The Other Side of Truth has a positive ending, Beverly Naidoo still succeeds in disturbing the reader. How does the author achieve this?

The entire premise of the story could be considered disturbing, even though the ending is a positive one. For example, the two children in the story become refugees after their mother's murder. Naidoo delves into the brutal experience and all the emotions and fears that accompany it for the children. Her description of the shooting that resulted in the death of the children's mother is disturbing on its own, especially since it is told from the perspective of young children. Immediately after learning that their mother will die from her gunshot wound, Sade receives a vague threat over the phone, increasing the tension in the story and creating an atmosphere of disturbing suspense.
Another disturbing element is introduced to the story when the children are forced to flee Nigeria to escape their father's political enemies with a woman who is already flying to London. Naidoo describes their pain and fear of leaving their father with heart-wrenching depth, making the story both disturbing and poignant. Sade and her brother are later abandoned at a cafe in London and they face the disturbing reality of being cold and alone in a strange place. They are treated unkindly and with suspicion by the locals, and face the harsh reality of being refugees without parents to care for them. After being taken into the foster care system, the children are assigned a kind social worker, but they have a frightening experience when immigration services gets involved. Throughout their experiences in the foster care system and at a strange school, Naidoo effectively showcases the emotional turmoil the children go through.
Later, after the children are reunited with their father in jail, they learn that he has been falsely accused of their mother's murder by Nigerian leaders. Dealing with the death of one parent and the incarceration of another is difficult enough, but the false accusation introduces another disturbing element to the story. While the story comes to an uplifting resolution in the end, with the children being permanently reunited with their father, the trauma they go through in order to get to their happy ending is significant. The author uses the gradual buildup of these traumatic experiences to create a tense and disturbing atmosphere throughout the story. Naidoo also uses the juxtaposition of the children's innocence and their horrific circumstances to disturb the reader.