The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

Eleven-year-old Parvana is sitting with her father on a blanket in the Kabul marketplace. Her head and shoulders are completely covered by her chador. She is there to help her father walk from home to the market. Parvana lives in Kabul with her mother Fatana and her father, her older sister Nooria, and her younger siblings, five-year-old Maryam and two-year-old Ali. 

Her parents are well educated having attended university; her father attended university in England and both her parents speak English. They came from well respected families and earned good money. This meant that "...they had a big house with a courtyard, a couple of servants, a television set, a refrigerator, a car."  Her father had taught in a  high school while her mother had been a writer for a Kabul radio station. Parvana had been in the sixth grade while Nooria attended high school. All that changed with the coming of the Taliban.

Before the Taliban, Afghanistan had been invaded by the Persians, Greeks,, Arabs, Turks, British and then Soviet Russia. War had been ongoing for more than twenty years. Parvana was born the year the Soviets left Afghanistan. The Taliban now ruled the country except for the northern regions. In Kabul they forced girls out of the schools, her mother was forced to leave her job and all girls and women in Afghanistan had to stay home. They were not even allowed out to shop.

Parvana's family had lost their beautiful home and had moved several times, each time to a smaller place. Now they lived in one small room with the possessions they managed to save from the bombings. Her father had lost his lower leg when his school was bombed but he had sold his wooden leg. So now Parvana helps her father walk to the market each day where he tries to sell some of their remaining possessions or reads letters for a fee. Most Afghans cannot read or write. Parvana can speak Dari and understand some Pashtu and because she has received an education, like her father she can read the letters.

They make their way home, her father leaning on Parvana. They now live on the third floor of a bomb-damaged building. To reach their apartment, Parvana and her father must use the damaged stairs on the outside of the building. Upon arriving home Parvana is sent out to get water, a task that means five trips to the outside tap. The single room they all share contains a tall wooden cupboard and two toshaks. The beautiful Afghan carpets and all their furniture has been destroyed in the bombings of their previous homes. What survived from the bombings Parvana's mother kept in the cupboard. This includes a parcel of Hossain's clothing. He was Parvana's older brother who was killed by a land mine when he was fourteen. Nooria has told Parvana how he loved to carry her around and play with her.

After their family meal, her father in his good white shalwar kameez begins telling a story from history. He was a history teacher at the time his school was bombed. The story is set in 1880 when the British attempted to take over Afghanistan and a young Afghan girl urged her country's soldiers on to defeat the British. Suddenly their joyful family moment is broken when four Taliban burst into their home. Two soldiers seize Parvana's father and drag him out while the other two ransack the wooden cupboard. They leave but not before beating Parvana as she tries to distract them from discovering her father's books hidden in the secret compartment at the base of the cupboard.

The next day Parvana and her mother set out to walk to the prison to free her father. Along the way her mother stops frequently to show a photograph of her father. Photographs are illegal but people just shake their heads. At the prison, Parvana's mother is initially ignored by the Taliban but when they both begin shouting for him to be released, the Taliban beat Parvana's mother and tear up the photograph. 

Parvana and her mother arrive at home, their feet bloodied and raw from the long walk. Her mother collapses on the toshak and weeps herself to sleep. For four days Parvana's mother doesn't get up. The room begins to smell from Ali's unwashed diapers and they finally run out of food. Parvana is sent out by Nooria to buy food. She is able to buy nan at the first stand but when she reaches the vegetable stand, Parvana is attacked by a Talib. After he strikes her, Parvana runs in terror, clutching the nan bread and runs straight into Mrs. Weera. In response to Mrs. Weera's question as to why she's running, she tells her she's running from the Taliban.

Mrs. Weera and Parvana's mother had been in the Afghan Women's Union and she has been meaning to visit to get her help with the women's magazine. She and her granddaughter accompany Parvana home. There Mrs. Weera manages to get Parvana's mother up, washed and dressed. The next morning, Parvana is stunned to learn that they are asking her to pretend to be a boy so that she can go to the market. The plan is that Parvana will cut her hair, change her name to Kaseem and pretend to be their cousin from Jalalabad. And if anyone asks her family where Parvana has gone, they will tell them she is visiting her aunt in Kunduz. Mrs. Weera tells Parvana, "It has to be your decision...We can force you to cut off your hair, but you're still the one who has to go outside and act the part. We know this is a big thing we're asking, but I think you can do it..."

Parvana agrees and with her hair cut short and dressed in Hossain's clothing, she ventures out to the market to buy food for her family. This time she is not harassed and she becomes the "breadwinner" for her family. Mrs. Weera decides to move in with Parvana's family so she and Parvana's mother can work on the women's magazine. But for Parvana, dressing as a boy offers her not only freedom but the unexpected friendship of another "boy".

Discussion

The Breadwinner is the first novel in the series about an Afghan girl named Parvana living under Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The story is narrated by Parvana who is eleven-years-old. Under Soviet and then Taliban rule, her family has suffered significant loss. Her family, once flourishing and well off, has lost their home, most of the possessions, and their son and brother, Hossain. 

Afghanistan has had a complicated and violent history but especially so in the twentieth century. The country was invaded in 1979 by the Soviets who wished to install a communist, Soviet-backed government. The Afghanis fought this takeover with help from the United States and Pakistan. In 1989, the Soviets had had enough and left the country in a chaotic state that led to another civil war. In the early 1990s, a new Sunni Islamist movement called the Taliban began to develop in the religious schools or madarasas in Pakistan and southern Afghanistan. This movement spread throughout the southern provinces and in 1996, the Taliban captured the city of Kabul, killing the president of Afghanistan and establishing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. 

In the Islamic state, the Taliban implemented Sharia Law under which women have almost no rights. The Taliban banned girls and women from attending school or studying, they are not allowed to work, they can only leave the house with a male chaperone and if they do so they must be fully covered with a burkha. They are not allowed to show any skin in public. Women cannot be involved in public speaking or politics. The ground floor windows of the home must be covered so that the women inside cannot be seen by passersby. Relatives who advocate for women or who help them break any of these rules are at risk of being punished by the Taliban. Women also cannot access health care provided by men. 

It is in this world that Parvana lives. Author Deborah Ellis effectively portrays to her young readers the devastating effect the civil war and the rise of the Taliban has had on Parvana's family. Although the term "Sharia Law" is not mentioned in the novel, this is what Parvana and her family have lived under for the last year and half.  Her mother, once a writer for a radio station in Kabul, cannot work and must stay home. Nooria and Parvana can no longer attend school. The family, once prosperous, has lost their home and most of their belongings. Their oldest son, Hossain died after stepping on a land mine, and Parvana's father has lost his lower leg during the bombing of the school where he taught. Civil war and the Taliban have impoverished them to the point that they must resort to selling their possessions in the Kabul market.

The Taliban also have a brutal punishment system for crimes based on a strict interpretation of Sharia law. These punishments can include flogging, amputations and executions that are often carried out in public spaces such as stadiums. Ellis portrays this in The Breadwinner when Parvana and her friend Shauzia slip into the stadium believing they are attending a soccer game. Instead they witness the gruesome amputation of  the hands of men accused being theives. The experience is traumatizing for the two girls.

Although no dates are given in the novel Parvana notes that they have lived under Taliban rule for the last year and a half and that her mother and Nooria have not been outside their home during that time. This likely places the novel in the early in the year of 1998. Near the end of the novel, Parvana and her father learn that Mazar-i-Sharif has been overtaken by the Taliban. This event happened in August of 1998.

Parvana and her friend Shauzia realistically portray the reality of life for girls during war and under Taliban rule. The two girls must worry about things that no child should have to worry about. But because they are girls living under Sharia Law, they have no voice and few choices. Parvana is in a better situation because her parents are well educated and they support girls being educated. Nevertheless, Parvana finds her situation stressful and she longs to just be a child. "Parvana was tired. She wanted to sit in a classroom and be bored by a geography lesson. She wanted to be with her friends and talk about homework and games and what to do on school holidays. She didn't want to know any more about death or blood or pain." Parvana sees the starving women in burquas begging and the hungry and sick. "And there was no end to it. This wasn't a summer vacation that would end and the life would get back to normal. This was normal, and Parvana was tired of it."

Shauzia's situaton is difficult too. Her father has died, her brother left for Iran and her mother is sick all the time. Shauzia, her mother and her two little sisters live with her father's parents who do not believe in girls being educated. She tells Parvana that everyone fights in the house. The situation is so difficult that Shauzia is planning to leave Afghanistan and hopes to travel to France. She hopes to leave by the spring when she will have saved enough money. However, Shauzia worries that she may have left it too late as her body is now beginning to change. Leaving her family means leaving them to starve as she is their only means of support. She tells Parvana, "I just have to get out of here. I know that makes me a bad person, but what else can I do? I'll die if I have to stay here!"  Later on Shauzia reveals to Parvana that her grandfather is looking for a husband for her because as a young girl she will "fetch a good bride price and they will have lots of money to live on." Such a view is extremely common in strict Islamic cultures. When Parvana asks how Shauzia's mother will eat, Shauzia's dilemma to save her mother or herself is revealed. Shauzia responds, "What can I do?" Shauzia asked, the question coming out as a wail. "If I stay here and get married, my life will be over. If I leave, maybe I'll have a chance. There must be some place in this world where I can live. Am I wrong to think like this?"

Parvana suggests that Shauzia should accompany Mrs. Weera and her granddaughter when they travel to Pakistan. However, Mrs. Weera suggests that Shauzia is deserting her family just because things are tough but does she really understand the situation Shauzia is in. Mrs. Weera was able to have an education and become a teacher. That future or most any other is no longer open to Shauzia if she stays in Afghanistan. Mrs. Weera seems to have forgotten that Shauzia is a child who has the right to be safe, to make some choices about her future and that includes the right to be educated. It is a dilemma that Parvana, at this time, cannot resolve.

The novel ends with Parvana and her father ready to begin a journey to Mazar which is now under the control of the Taliban, to find her mother, Nooria and Ali. This leads nicely into the second novel in the series, Parvana's Journey.

Book Details:

The Breadwiinner by Deborah Ellis

Toronto: Groundwood Books/House of Ansai Press     2021

176 pp.

Ground Zero by Alan Gratz

Ground Zero is the story of  the past and present, of 9/11 and the U.S. war on terror in 2019 told using two narratives. In the first narrative, it is September 11, 2001 and nine-year-old Brandon Chavez has to spend the day with his dad, Leo Chavez at the World Trade Center.  Brandon's father is a kitchen manager at the restaurant, Windows on the World, located at the very top of the North Tower, on the 107th floor.

Brandon and his father are a team, working together to survive, after the death of Brandon's mother from cancer, when he was only five years old. Getting into a fight at school was definitely not good for their team as Brandon was suspended. His father reminds him that fighting is not the way to deal with problems.

In the restaurant, Brandon is put to work filling flower vases on tables. When a fire breaks out in the kitchen, Brandon uses the distraction to slip into the elevator. His plan is to get to the underground mall to buy the Wolverine gloves his friend Cedric lost in the fight at school.

Brandon is in the elevator that only goes to the Sky Lobby on the 78th floor. After several people get on, the elevator begins swaying back and forth after a tremendous THOOM. Then the elevator begins sliding down and only stops when Brandon manages to hit the emergency stop button. When they call the emergency phone they learn that there was some kind of explosion on the 91st floor.

Black smoke begins creeping through the seems in the ceiling and the elevator begins getting very hot. Cellphones don't work. Brandon and the people trapped in the elevator struggle to free themselves by first forcing open the doors of the elevator and then chipping a hole through three layers of drywall.

Brandon manages to squeeze through the hole and onto the 85th floor where he runs to find help. With the help of some men from the bank, and a fireman's axe, they manage to break open a larger hole and rescue everyone from the elevator before it plummets down the shaft. When Marni, who was trapped in the elevator calls her husband she learns that a passenger jet has flown into the tower. While the rescued people decide to climb down 85 flights of stairs, Brandon decides to  head back upstairs to find his father. But Brandon has no idea of how catastrophic the damage is to the North Tower. Can he save himself and his father?

Alternating with Brandon's story is that of Reshmina, a young girl living with her family in a rural village in Afghanistan.  Her village is built into the mountainside with the houses stacked on top of each other. A long set of  switchback stairs cut into the rock offer the only way to reach her home. Eleven-year-old Reshmina lives with her parents, her anaa- grandmother, her older sister Marzia, her brother Pasoon and her little brother Zahir. Reshmina's eldest sister, Hila was killed when her wedding party was attacked by American's believing them to be Taliban.

Reshmina and Pasoon climb the rock stairs to their house, watching as the ANA and Americans search house to house. Pasoon is furious to see the Afghans taking orders from the Americans. Soon the soldiers are at Reshmina's home. A short, broad-shouldered American soldier tells them in English that they are not here to hurt them. Reshmina is thrilled to discovered she can understand him. Unlike Pasoon, she has continued with her English lessons at school. She's even more amazed to encounter an Afghan woman working as a translator for the Americans. None of the women Reshmina knows work outside the home: they are all wives, mothers, and daughters. The translator tells them that the Americans have been told there is a cache of Taliban weapons in the village.

Outside their home, the American soldier tells Baba, Pasoon and Reshmina they need to keep the Taliban out of their village. This makes both Reshmina and Pasoon angry as cooperating with either the Taliban or the Americans brings problems.

When Reshmina attempts to follow the group of soldiers so she can watch the Afghan translator, Pasoon tells her she can't and reveals that the Americans have been lured to their village as a trap by the Taliban. They plan to attack the Americans as they leave the village. Reshmina is shocked at the betrayal and what it means. But before she can tell anyone, the Taliban attack happens.

After the attack, Reshmina encounters a badly wounded American soldier, his face scorched and his eyes blinded. If he is found by the Taliban, they will kill him. Reshmina wants to slip away, but when he asks for help in English which she understands, she knows she cannot refuse. 

At her home, Reshmina's baba agrees to take in the wounded American. Reshmina realises that the soldier has the same small stuffed toy attached to his vest as the American soldier who searched their home only a few minutes earlier. He tells them his name is Taz, after the small stuffed Tasmanian Devil toy on his vest.

Reshmina's mother is horrified to see the soldier in her house. When Pasoon returns he is overjoyed at the success of the attack which killed everyone including the woman Afghan translator, Miriam. But when he sees the wounded American soldier, he is furious and determined to inform the Taliban. While Pasoon runs off, Baba assures Taz they will not let the Taliban take him.

Because Taz needs medical treatment at a hospital, Reshmina's father decides to travel to the ANA base, five kilometers away to let them know about Taz. But Reshmina knows she has to find Pasoon and stop him from joining the Taliban and telling them about Taz. If he tells them about their family hiding the American soldier, they and their village will be punished by the Taliban. Can Reshmina save Pasoon, Taz and their family

Discussion

Ground Zero is a fictional story about the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 and the ongoing American involvement in Afghanistan as a result of the terrorist attacks almost two decades ago. It is a story about how revenge leads to more war and loss, and how choosing a different path, that of working together makes for a better world.

Gratz connects the past event of 9/11 with the ongoing current events in Afghanistan through the use of alternating storylines. Nine-year-old Brandon Chavez finds himself in the North Tower, his father trapped at the very top, while he struggles to get to safety. Eighteen years later, eleven-year-old Reshmina struggles to prevent her brother from joining the Taliban and save her family from a retaliatory strike by American forces after a Taliban attack leaves an American soldier badly wounded. 

 Gratz aligns similar events in each narrative perhaps to demonstrate that war and violent acts have a particular economy - they play out much the same regardless of the country or the people or the cause, with death and destruction and often with many innocent victims.For example, when Brandon is buried in the rubble of the fallen tower, in the following chapter, Reshmina and her family and village are buried alive in the cave after an attack by the Americans. Brandon escapes to see the towers destroyed while Reshmina survives to see her entire village crumbling down the mountainside.

The novel also highlights how the innocent victims often have no understanding of the events they find themselves caught up in. While he's making his way down the stairs of the North Tower, Brandon is told about the 1993 bombing of the tower by terrorist who wanted the U.S. out of the Middle East. He wonders who is attacking them. "Brandon still didn't understand. What purpose did attacking the Twin Towers serve? Hurting all these innocent people." Eighteen years later, Reshmina also has no understanding of the war between the Taliban and the Americans nor of the 9/ll attacks. The pictures Taz shows her of the Twin Towers burning mean nothing to her, her parents, grandparents or the other elderly villagers. But the fear and loss Brandon experienced during the events of 9/11 are the same fear and loss that Reshmina experiences years later as the American soldiers fight the Taliban.

Reshmina's situation reminds Brandon of the lesson he learned that day years ago after surviving the 9/11 attack. Before the attack Brandon viewed his father and himself as being "against the world". But that changed. "It isn't me against the world, Brandon realized. It's everyone working together. And not against the world either, but for each other. That was how they survived." Reshmina reminds Taz that the U.S. needs to stop doing the kind of "helping" they are doing. "You can't help us by rebuilding villages and destroying them at the same time. " 

Ground Zero, published in time for the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, is a thoughtful treatment of the terrorist attacks and the War on Terror. Gratz is able to show the human cost while advocating through the character of Reshmina (and Taz ) for another path. At the end of the novel, Reshmina spots her brother Pasoon who waves to her, but she doesn't return his wave. Instead, she tells her baba they will choose another path - not only down the mountain but also a path different from the one Pasoon has chosen, which will only lead to more death and destruction.

Ground Zero is a thrilling read, with lots of tense moments. Well-written, this is another excellent novel for young readers by this outstanding author. Gratz is able to impart some of the history about the Twin Towers attacks through various characters and about Afghanistan through the character of Reshmina's grandmother who grew up in Kabul before the Soviet invasion. In this way, young readers become informed about these events and can consider current policies and actions within some context. The author has included significant resources at the back of the novel including a map of the World Trade Center and Afghanistan as well as a detailed Author's Note explaining the 9/11 attacks as well as the war in Afghanistan and America's current involvement.

Book Details:

Ground Zero by Alan Gratz
New York: Scholastic Press   2021
304 pp.

The Library Bus by Bahram Rahman

Pari will be accompanying her mama as she drives the library bus. This bus is filled with shelves of books and today is Pari's first time helping. They leave Kabul before sunrise, arriving at a small village in a valley hidden by mountains just as dawn comes. Once the bus parks, Pari opens the back door and welcomes a group of girls into the bus. After they have returned their library books and chosen new ones, Pari's mama helps them learn the English alphabet.

Soon they are off to another destination, this time a refugee camp beyond the mountains. On the way Mama tells Pari that her Grandpa taught her to read. Girls were not allowed to attend school when she was a young girl, so they had to learn to read and write in secret. But Pari will be able to attend school next year.

They arrive at the dusty refugee camp at noon. Pari's mama hands out pencils and notebooks to those who need new ones. Once again she leads the girls in learning the English alphabet. At home that night, Pari wonders why the girls in the village or camp don't attend school. Her mother explains that the library bus is the only schooling they have. She reminds Pari that her situation will be different next year as she will be attending school.

Discussion

Bahram Rahman was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and grew up during the civil war and the Taliban regime. After earning a medical degree and a graduate degree in public policy, Rahman was able to emigrate to Canada in 2012. He had been active in Afghanistan, working to try to improve the rights of girls and women in the country. Girls like his own sister were not able to attend school.

The Library Bus was inspired by the real first library bus to operate in Kabul, Afghanistan run by Charmaghz, a Kabul-based non-profit. Founded by Freshta Karim, a young Afghani woman, Charmaghz works to encourage critical thinking in children so they can grow up to be "positive and open-minded individuals". As a result of the repressive policies of the Taliban, Afghanistan has a very low literacy rate. It is estimated that over three million girls in Afghanistan have never been to school.

Like the bus in this picture book, the Charmaghz Mobile Library bus which is rented from the Ministry of Transport, leaves early in the morning and travels to two or three locations each day. Care is taken to park the bus in an area that will be safe from bombs or terrorist attacks. The mobile library stays at each location for about two hours. In that time children are free to look for books in the mobile library and for those who cannot read, there is a storytime at the back of the bus on the carpeted floor. This is a much needed service for the many children who have no access to books.

The Library Bus tells about the mobile library bus using Rahman's simple text accompanied by the delightful, expressive illustrations done by artist Gabrielle Grimard. The illustrations rendered in watercolour and digital media, capture the delight and wonder of the children as they greet the bus and search for books. 

To learn more about Charmaghaz, check out their website.

Book Details:

The Library Bus by Bahram Rahman
Toronto: Pajama Press  2020

Shooting Kabul by Naheed Hasnat Senzai

It is July 2001, and eleven-year-old Fadi Nurzai's family are fleeing their home country of Afghanistan. Fadi along with his father Habib,his mother Zafoona, his older sister Noor and younger sister Mariam are packed into a taxi hurtling across the dusty plain in the dark. Their driver is Professor Sahib, Habib's former  teacher at Kabul University. After a six hour ride from Kabul, they arrive in Jalalabad, a city in the eastern province of Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. Here they will rendezvous with a truck to take them to across the Afghan border with Pakistan to Peshawar where Zafoona's cousin and her husband will meet them at the border.

Only a month earlier, Fadi's father had told them they were leaving Afghanistan. Zafoona needed better medical care for a cold that had turned into a serious illness. But also the Taliban had tried to recruit Fadi's father in what was a thinly veiled threat. Although he had put them off for the time being, it is inevitable that they will return.

Habib was born in Afghanistan but had travelled to Madison, Wisconsin where he earned a Ph.D in Agriculture. Afterwards he returned to his homeland inspired to help rebuild Afghanistan after the defeat of the Soviets by the Taliban.

When he and Zafoona had returned to their homeland along with their family, the Taliban asked Habib to rid the country of the poppy fields used for opium. Gradually Habib had been successful in this endeavour, getting farmers to grow food for the country. However, the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam began creating problems as they began suppressing civil rights. Music, movies, books and photography were banned, women were forced to wear the burka, and schools for girls were closed. Fadi's father had hoped to obtain work at Kabul University in the agriculture department but it was closed because of the years of war. Instead, Habib opened a dry goods store in downtown Kabul to support his family.

Just past midnight an army truck shows up at the rendezvous point to take them to Pakistan. Habib, realizing this is their ride, orders Fadi to take Mariam, while Noor follows with their mother. As they move towards the truck, suddenly dozens of people emerge from hiding, running towards the truck. Fadi is gripping Mariam's hand tightly and tries to steer them towards his father in the back of the truck. In the chaos, with everyone scrambling to get on the truck, the Taliban arrive, creating even more panic. But as Fadi's father pulls him into the back of the truck, Mariam slips from his grip, trying to retrieve her pink Barbie, Gulmina which as fallen to the ground.

Panicked by the approach of the Taliban, the truck driver announces he is leaving. To Fadi's horror, the truck roars away, leaving six-year-old Mariam behind with many others and the Taliban in hot pursuit. Zafoona, already ill and exhausted is completely hysterical. Her pleas for the truck to return to retrieve Mariam are ignored while Habib who wants to jump out of the truck, is held down by the other men. Returning would mean capture by the Taliban and possible execution.

On the plane to London, Fadi berates himself, feeling responsible for losing Mariam. He thinks back to when they arrived in Peshawar. Once in Peshawar, Fadi's father went back over the border in an attempt to locate Mariam, but could find no trace of her. Zafoona's cousin, Nargis promised to contact them and let them know when she heard any news. Unable to delay any longer, Fadi's family had to go to the American consulate in Peshawar to pick up the papers "arranged with the help of Habib's old college advisor in the United States." Zafoona had wanted to remain in Peshawar but Habib told her that if they did not leave their asylum papers would expire and they would have been stateless - unable to return to Afghanistan but unable to remain in Pakistan.

When they arrive in San Francisco, Fadi and his family are met at the airport by Uncle Amin, who is married to Zafoona's younger sister Khala Nilufer. Once a doctor in Kabul's main hospital, Amin and Nilufer had left Afghanistan in 1998 along with his parents Abay and Dada, a month after Fadi's parents had arrived back in the country from the United States. Uncle Amin works two jobs as a lab technician to support his family but he generously offers them to stat with him at his home in Fremont. Fadi meets his cousin, Zalmay, who is his age. While eating lunch, the adults talk about little Mariam and how UN Refugee Agency has sent out a bulletin about Mariam and how there are many people looking out for her. However, Fadi's feelings of guilt overwhelm him and he hides inside the pantry.

In August of 2001, Fadi's father and his Uncle Amin have contacted many family and friends in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, all searching on both sides of the border for Mariam. Meanwhile Habib moves his family out of Uncle Amin's house into an apartment at the Paradise Apartment Complex.

Fadi begins the school year at Brookhaven Middle School where he is in Mr. Torres' 6B class. Almost immediately he draws the attention of two bullies in his class, Felix and Ike. Fadi does a good deed by returning a classmate's wallet and she introduces herself as Anh Hong. Meanwhile at home, Fadi's family learns that Mariam may have been taken in by a family with two boys who were trying to get to Peshawar. This information upsets Zafoona and she argues with Habib telling him they should not have left Peshawar.Zafoona wants to return to Peshawar to search for Mariam but that requires money the Hurzai family does not have.

When Fadi learns about the school photography club and an upcoming contest with the chance to win tickets to India, he believes he just might have found a way to go back and help find Mariam. With the encouragement of Anh and Noor's money for the club fee, Fadi is determined to win. Meanwhile he must deal with the class bullies and his own feelings of guilt. When the contest doesn't produce the results Fadi is hoping for, he all but gives up until a remarkable meeting changes everything.

Discussion

The events in Shooting Kabul bracket the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City and throughout the United States. The novel provides young readers with insight into the immigrant experience during this time. Fadi's parents who returned to their homeland of Afghanistan with the hope of helping to modernize their country are now refugees in the United States. But their relief at escaping from the Taliban is marred by the loss of Mariam who was accidentally left behind in Jalalabad.

Shooting Kabul focuses primarily on the struggles of eleven-year-old Fadi as he experiences tremendous guilt and shame for not being able to hang onto his little sister Mariam when they were trying to board truck to take them out of Kabul. He is so certain of his own guilt in the matter that he is shocked to discover that each member of his family is also struggling with guilt. Shortly after arriving in San Francisco, Zafoona confesses her feelings of guilt to her sister Nilufer,
" 'She's my baby. I'm her mother. It's all my fault,' cried Zafoona, and, she burst into ragged sobs...
'No you don't understand,' said Zafoona. 'If I wasn't so sick, I could have looked after her. But instead everyone was looking after me. Noor and Habib were so worried about getting me on board the truck that they lost track of Fadi and Mariam. It's my fault.'"

Despite hearing this, Fadi continues to believe Mariam's situation was his fault, and he withdraws, often withdrawing from his family. In their new apartment, Fadi overhears his sister Noor confessing her responsibility for the loss of Mariam to their father. Noor states that she was responsible for caring for Fadi and Mariam; "No, I'm the oldest. I should have taken care of them...It's my fault Mariam is lost!" Fadi is shocked to overhear this admission but he thinks, "Everyone things it's their fault she's gone. But it's my fault, not anyone else's. I'm the one who doesn't deserve to belong to this family. I'm the one who's torn it apart."

Fadi then hits on the idea that he will return to Peshawar to find his sister. However without money this will be difficult so he devises a plan to travel to Pakistan. Just how deeply Fadi feels the loss of his sister is demonstrated when he sneaks into the trunk of his father's taxi to hitch a ride to the airport. His plan is to board a flight to London and then to catch a plane to Peshawar. Fortunately for Fadi, when he is unable to get out of the trunk, disaster is averted when his father opens the trunk to place a passenger's luggage inside.

Fadi then becomes determined to win the grand prize of a trip to India, in a local photography contest. Although planning to enter the photography contest gives Fadi hope his pain and guilt surface in a destructive way when the family visits a Toys R Us store.
"From both sides of the aisle hundreds of Barbies stared down at him. Fadi closed his eyes. His body felt cold and his hand went numb...His eyelids flickered open. Cowgirl Barbie gave him an accusing glare. Artist Barbie stood next to her, holding a paintbrush, sharing a conspiratorial frown with Doctor Barbie....Assembled on the bottom row stood a platoon of Barbies from around the world. Native American, Korean, Spanish, Nigerian, and Austrian Barbie were whispering to one another...whispering about Gulmina." The sight of the Barbies triggers the image of Mariam "holding out Gulmina, asking him to put her into his backpack." Fadi becomes enraged and begins destroying the Barbie display. "He knocked off a line of dolls, and they crashed to the floor. He stomped on the slender rectangular boxes, his tennis shoes making crunching sounds. He fell to his knees and ripped of the lids and pulled out Diamond Princess Barbie. He shook her with all his might and started banging her and Soccer Barbie against the concrete floor. The store manager found him, huddled on a pile of crushed boxes and Barbies, sobbing." The scene is tragic and disturbing, portraying the trauma many refugees from war-torn areas  experience.

Although both Zafoona and Noor have told someone about their guilt over Mariam, Fadi has been unable to confide in anyone, carrying his burden alone. However, after losing the photography contest and any chance of traveling to India, he confides in Ms. Bethune, telling her what happened that night in Kabul. Fadi is shocked that she does not consider him responsible and she helps him look at what happened in a different way, encouraging him not to blame himself for something he had little control over. Fadi never does tell his family about his guilt because the situation is resolved before he has the opportunity to do so.

Throughout the novel Senzai does an good job of incorporating recent Afghan history into the story so that younger readers have the background information to understand the events that occur. Readers experience the 9/11 attacks from the perspective of the Afghanistan refugees through the characters of Habib, Zafoona, Uncle Amin and others. The author also portrays how the Afghani people themselves view Osama Bin Laden, in the scene after 9/11 in the grocery shop in Little Kabul, and how they believe the events of 9/11 will impact their country. By incorporating many details about the country itself young readers from the United States and Canada are able to learn a bit about  Afghanistan's a rich heritage and diverse ethnic groups.

Shooting Kabul is another fine novel from this author and is highly recommended. Senzai states in her Author's Note at the back that "I didn't want to write this book..." because it touched many sensitive and personal issues including Islam, Afghan history and politics. Senzai's father-in-law's experiences are mirrored in those of Habib making the novel a very personal story. But it is a story well worth reading because it provides young readers the opportunity to understand Afghan history and culture separate from the American perspective presented in the media and because it also portrays the challenges refugees experience in coming to a culture vastly different from their own.

map credit: https://www.cia.gov/static/6795428c1b9ef1df4e25cd6418c88f44/afghanistan-admin.jpg

Book Details:

Shooting Kabul by Naheed Hasnat Senzai
New York: A Paula Wiseman Book      2010
273 pp.

One Half From The East by Nadia Hashimi

"One little letter fell off the back end of my name and my world changed. It's the smallest little letter, barely even a sound. Rahim...Rahima. See? If you say it fast enough, you could miss it. Who ever thought such a tiny little letter could make such a big difference."

One Half From The East is a story written for younger readers about the unusual practice of bacha posh, dressing a young girl as a boy. Set in a small village in Afghanistan, a young girl is dressed as a boy, a custom that is believed to bring the family good luck and to perk the spirits of her maimed father. This leads the young girl to confront her culture's negative views of being a girl and all that implies for her future.

The novel opens with ten-year-old Obayda and her family struggling to begin a new life in a small village outside of Kabul. Six months earlier Obayda's father lost his leg in a car bomb explosion in the marketplace. This terrible event led to Obayda's family moving to the smaller village because her father's brothers would be able to help them out.

Life in Kabul was much easier; Obayda's family had an apartment with a balcony and their school had blackboards and desks and a playground with swings. In the small village, Obayda lives close to her eldest uncle who is responsible for looking after his younger siblings as well as his own family. But in Obayda's family there are only girls, sixteen year old Neela, thirteen year old Meena and twelve year old Alia. There is no son to look out for their family.

One day Auntie Aziza visits their home. Since his accident, Obayda's father remains confined to this bedroom, unwilling to leave his bed. Meena and Obayda listen in to the conversation between their mother and Aunt Aziza who suggests that Obayda become a bacha posh. Aunt Aziza suggests that Obayda's mother cut her daughter's hair, dress her in pants and a shirt and send her to the new school dressed as a boy. "With her as a son, she will bring good luck to your home. You'll see your husband cheer up. Then you plan for another baby in the family. Having a bacha posh at home brings boy energy into your household. The next baby that comes will be a boy. And once you have a real son, watch what happens. Your husband will come back to life."

The next day Obayda's mother cuts her hair and she is given pants and a shirt. Her name is changed to Obayd and her life changes drastically. She doesn't have to help with the housework, she isn't allowed to wear a dress or dance, and she's served dinner before her sisters, getting the few pieces of meat her family can afford. A few weeks later she is sent off to school.  Obayda's time as a boy is about to change her life in ways she can't imagine.

Discussion

One Half From The East explores the gender inequality that exists in Afghanistan and is common to many Middle Eastern and Asian countries. Hashimi explores this problem on both an individual level and on how this inequality affects society as a whole.

Ten year old Obayda is already aware of the inequality that exists in her society for girls. She notes that in Kabul "every family sent their girls to school", but that in the village there were two kinds of families; "...ones that send their daughters to school" and "Some families think daughters are born to be wives and mothers and don't need to bother with books or writing...They can count only how many cups of rice to soak and can't tell the letter kof from the letter gof."

At school Obayda finds herself in a "weird place between both worlds." She finds "everything else about being a boy is hard because it's so different from being a girl. Trying to act like a boy is like learning a whole new language, and I am really struggling to find the words. " Obayda finds that becoming a pacha posh has put up a wall between her and her sisters.

Fortunately for Obayd as she is now called, another bacha posh comes to her rescue. Called Rahim, she tells Obayd, "Forget everything else and be a boy." Obayd asks Rahim, who has been a bacha posh for several years, if she likes being a boy and she asks Obayd, "...you know what it means to be a girl. Was it anything worth being?" This is the question Obayda must  ultimately answer for herself.

The ramifications of being a girl in this small village are spelled out by Rahim to Obayd. "It's almost as if all girls are born knowing what could happen, so we try  to move around outside like ghosts -- keeping our voices low, our footsteps light, and our eyes to the ground." Because this is what being a girl means in Afghanistan, Rahim is determined never to change back to a girl.  After more than five months as a boy, Obayd discovers that she likes the freedom and the changes that have resulted. She is stronger and she is more confident. Rahim tells Obayd about a legend her mother has told - "that passing under a rainbow changes boys to girls and girls to boys."  Rahim hopes that by passing under a rainbow she can permanently change herself into a boy and have the freedom she so desperately wants. However for Rahim things do not work out. After seeing her playing with older boys her parents arrange for her to marry the tribal warlord who rules their village. She is thirteen years old. This horrifies Obayda who does not want to return to being a girl because she is afraid she will lose all the opportunities she has as a boy.

Obayda's time as a bacha posh leads her to believe that being a girl is the worst fate possible. Thinking about the new baby her mother is soon to have she states, "...I...wonder if it's a boy or a girl. I hope, for the kid's sake, that it's a boy, even though my parents will be so happy with a son that they'll probably forget my boy name." 

Obayda seeks out her friend Rahima who tells her to find a way to make sure she does not share her fate of being withdrawn from school and forced to marry. "Do everything, Obayd! DO EVERYTHING!" This advice leads Obayda to try to find a rainbow to walk under so she can permanently become a boy. But after frightening her family with her disappearance to find the waterfall,  her mother tells Obayda that the rainbow is only a legend told to children. Obayda is now confused, "Why would you want me to be a boy only for now? If being a boy is good, isn't being a boy forever even better?"

Obayda's sister Alia points out that she was quite satisfied when she was a girl but Obayda tells her she doesn't understand how much better it is to be a boy. Her sister Meena insists she doesn't need boy body parts to do the things that boys do. She built a special crutch for their father to use while she was pretending to be a boy. But she was in fact a girl when she built the crutch. This leads Obayda to wonder "Was I really a boy or was I just acting like one? That makes a big difference."

Obayda's mother, realizes that by forcing Obayda to become a bacha posh she has taught her daughter that it is shameful to be a girl. She realizes this when Obayda tells her that if the new baby is a girl she believes they will be unhappy and later when Obayda remarks that the baby must be a boy if the kicks her mother is feeling are so strong. Her father too shows Obayda that her believes girls are just as capable as boys when he reveals to his friend Agha Samir that it was not his brother who made his crutch but his daughter. 

Hashimi does demonstrate subtly that the practice of bacha posh can leave girls unable to integrate back into their culture as they become confused about their identity. Rahim tells Obayd that she over heard her mother and aunt talking about how "some boys like us don't know what to do when they're changed back. They get confused and act really weird." 

One Half From The East is a fascinating exploration into another culture quite different from that of Western Europe and North America and introduces young readers to the strange custom of bacha posh, allowing them to explore what it means to be a girl. The limitations places on girls in Afghani culture are common in all cultures to a greater or lesser extent. The message here though is that girls have the same dreams, potential and gifts that boys have and that we need to work to create a world where they are free to do so.

Older readers may want to further explore the life of Rahima in Nadia Hashimi's novel in The Pearl That Broke Its Shell.

Book Details:

One Half From The East by Nadia Hashimi
New York: HarperCollins Children's Books         2016
256 pp.

The Secret Sky. A Novel of Forbidden Love in Afghanistan by Atia Abawi

The Secret Sky is a story about forbidden love in an country where a family's honour is based on the sexual purity of its women. To break that code even in the most minor of ways,  is to bring unending shame upon the family who can only restore its honour through blood - the blood of the woman who caused the dishonour. The author, Atia Abawi was an unborn baby when she left Afghanistan as her parents and older sibling fled the Soviet occupation. Although her parents often spoke of returning to their beloved homeland, the rise of the Taliban and the subsequent war with America made such a return impossible. Atia however did travel to Afghanistan in 2008 where she lived for five years as a foreign correspondent. Abawi writes "In the more than four years I lived in Afghanistan, I experienced life in the most spectacular ways -- and death in the most horrific. I learned quickly that Afghanistan is a land of contradictions. It hold unimaginable beauty and inconceivable ugliness." Abawi states that she has tried to illustrate real-life experiences as accurately as possible in the hopes that her readers "will get a small glimpse into a beautiful and tragic world unseen by many." Her novel, although fiction, is influenced by real events and real people. Which makes it all the more tragic and touching.

The title of this tragic novel is a reference to a line from one of the great Persian poet, Jalal ad-Din Rumi's poems which Abawi features opposite her Introduction. This is love: To fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.

The novel is divided into three parts. Part One is narrated by Fatima who lives with her father, Mohammad, her mother Mossuma, her three year old sister, Afifa and her younger brothers in a small village. Her older brother, Ali, was sent to work in Iran but was killed on the journey there. Fatima is on the cusp of womanhood, still a child but her body is changing into that of a young woman. As a result there are certain cultural restrictions on where she goes and who she is seen with. The girls her age are no longer allowed to leave their homes. Fatima remembers a time when all the children, both Pashtun and Hazara, played together.  Zohra tells Fatima that she's learned that Fatima's close childhood friend, Samiullah, who is a Pashtun, has returned home from the madrassa. No sooner than they have finished pulling water from the well, the two girls meet Samiullah on their way home. His piercing green eyes seem warm  and comforting to Fatima who cannot help but notice how tall and handsome he has grown in the past three years.

Fatima often goes to see her best friend, Zohra, whose grandmother is teaching her how to write and read. Her grandmother and her mother before her were educated in a time when Afghanistan was becoming a modern state. The following morning on her way to Zohra's home, Fatima encounters Samiullah in the woods. Although she knows she shouldn't be alone with him, Fatima agrees to meet him the next day. At Zohra's the two girls talk about marriage and Fatima mentions to her friend that she wants something more than marriage, telling her about the university in Kabul where women attend. Zohra tells a shocked Fatima that her parents are considering marrying her to a wealthy boy in another village.

The next day Fatima lies to her mother and meets Samiullah in the woods. They play hide and seek and sit near the stream talking. When Samiullah hears motorcycles the couple hide quietly behind a rock. At home Fatima overhears her madar begin to push her father to consider arranging a marriage for their eldest daughter, a prospect that upsets Fatima. Fatima and Samiullah meet again but the lies and the risk she is taking begin to worry Fatima. "...what worries me more is that it will ruin my family's name and honor to have their eldest daughter running around the village unsupervised. Not just unsupervised -- alone with a boy....I can't do this. It's far too risky." However, she does meet Samiullah and they spend some time together talking about Sami's time at the madrassa. Their meeting abruptly ends when their hear branches crackling.

Part Two is narrated by Rashid who is filled with anger and hate, yet who believes he is doing the work of God. Rashid is Samiullah's cousin - his father's younger sister Gul Bibi is Sami and his younger sister Nur's mother. Rashid's father along with the rest of his family was murdered and Gul Bibi took him into their family. Both Rashid and Sami were sent to the madrassa, like their father's before them to learn more about Islam and the Holy Quran. But while Samiullah hated it, Rashid seemed to have found his calling.

It is Rashid who has seen Samiullah and Fatima together in the woods, an act he considers sinful and blasphemous. He is determined to punish both but decides to wait. It is obvious that Rashid is poisoned by a hatred of his cousin. "...I see my uncle and my cousin the infidel lagging behind him. Sinner! He's so smug, trying to act sweet as he picks up the little kids, who are giggling like goats.....He lies to everyone and acts as though he is a man of virtue...."

Rashid has been sent by the instructors from the madrassa to help Mullah Latif and his men, who are considered thugs by the local villagers. They are known to extort food from the nearby villagers in return for protection. His time at the madrassa has taught him to look down on the people of his village who he considers as lacking in "any concept of good and bad, God and the devil." Rashid knows his uncle, Samiullah's father hates Mullah Latif, considering  him a thief.

The next morning Rashid accompanies Sami into town to open the family store. Many of the stores are now closed and Sami tells Rashid that this is because of the Taliban. This angers Rashid who begins to question Samiullah about Fatima's family suggesting that because they are Hazara they are cheats. Samiullah outright rejects Rashid's assertions saying they must not judge people based on the actions of their ancestors. Learning that Rashid is teaching the Quran to younger students. Sami encourages Rashid to teach the true Quran to the children. This enrages Rashid who openly accuses Samiullah of running "around with that peasant whore in the woods" - a reference to Fatima. Horrified at what Rashid has said and his hateful attitude towards Fatima and her family, Samiullah prays to God asking him to protect Fatima, guide him and protect Rashid from his own hatred.

Desperately in need of guidance, Samiullah decides to visit Mullah Sarwar in a nearby village to seek advice. Mullah Sarwar helped Sami make the decision to return home from the madrassa.  Sarwar tells Samiullah that God has bestowed a great gift, that of love, upon him but that marrying Fatima will mean overcoming many obstacles.

When Samiullah returns to his home he finds Fatima's father, Mohammad, Zohra's father, Karim, and Rashid with his father, Ismail. Rashid accuses him in front of the other men of "disrespecting" Mohammad's family, Mohammad's daughter and his own family. After Rashid leaves, Sami attempts unsuccessfully to explain to Karim and his father about his relationship with Fatima. Sami asks Mohammad for permission to marry his daughter, but both men refuse. Ismail tells Samiullah that he will not sanction such a marriage as Fatima is a farmer and as such beneath marrying him.

Part Three picks up Fatima's narrative but also now includes narratives by both Rashid and Samiullah as the crisis within their families reaches a climax. It begins with Fatima being sent home from Zohra's home by Karim who then angrily confronts Zohra asking her if she knew what was going on between Sami and Fatima.

After two days of being ignored, Fatima's father tells her that Samiullah has requested her in marriage. He tells Fatima that she cannot marry him and her mother tells her she is whore, slapping her and reminding Fatima that she is lucky they are not going to kill her. He announces that she will marry her friend Zorha's father, Karim and be his second wife. Fatima is horrified and distraught begging her father to reconsider Samiullah's proposal. The next day Fatima is attacked by her mother who drags her to the kitchen by her hair, kicks her in the stomach and then pours boiling water over her arms. She tells Fatima she is a whore who has disgraced their family and warns her that if she tells her father she will burn her face.

Fatima receives Sami's letter and does go to the well to get water, although she is in agony. Sami meets her and discovers her terrible injuries. He tells her that this is further proof that they must flee to Kabul because the people who support this sort of thing will not stop until they are both dead.
"There are people more dangerous than your mother who will want to punish us. Those are the ones I am afraid of. You are in the most danger."

That night Fatima comes to the decision that she must leave her home and her village. She knows her father will never look at her again, her mother will not forgive her and will likely turn all her siblings against her. Feeling responsible for what has happened she decides to meet Samiullah and together they flee to Mullah Sarwar's masjid. Can they possibly escape the terror that now hunts them, seeking their death to restore honour to their families and their village?

Discussion

The Secret Sky is not a novel for the faint at heart; there is murder, beatings and torture as well as references to the sexual abuse of young boys. It's not overly graphic but, if as Abawi states that she has based her novel on real people and real events, it makes the story all the more tragic. It is a brilliant effort that paints a realistic picture of a culture caught in the throes of a radical shift in thinking complicated by cultural practices around honour and old prejudices between two ethnic groups Hazara and Pashtun. The Hazara are an ethnic group in the central highland region of Hazarajat in Afghanistan. They have been persecuted by the Pashtun who feel they should be labourers and servants.

The Secret Sky outlines in a general way how the Taliban came to gradually overrun Afghanistan. Young people were sent into Pakistan to the madrassas to learn about Islam but in fact were indoctrinated into a radical form of the religion which encouraged people to fight against foreigners and to help create an Islamic state based on strict Islamic laws. According to such laws, men and women who are unrelated cannot be together. Such contact, even though not physical is considered to sully a woman's reputation. These young people returned to their villages bringing with them this radical form of Islam which was then gradually forced onto the local rural villages. It was compounded by cultural practices surrounded a distorted view of family honour which holds that women can be tainted by even the slightest contact with an unrelated male. Whereas before families may have handled these problems and perhaps married off the couple, the radical Islamic teaching now insisted that they were to be punished with death. Also many of these young men returning from the madrassa's in Pakistan set up a sort of Afghan mafia and went around demanding protection money from farmers, villagers and store keepers.

It is difficult to comprehend Mossuma's attitude towards her daughter when she finds out she has been seen with Samiullah because the concept of family honour is so alien to Western culture. Neither family questions either Fatima nor Samiullah as to what exactly happened in the woods and it is assumed that the couple met to have sex. Mossuma has a very mercenary view of her children, seeing them as a means to gain either wealth or status. She sent Ali to Iran to earn money for her against the wishes of her husband. She then tries to marry off Fatima when she hears of Zohra's impending engagement, in the hopes of making a match with a wealthy family, but Mohammad will have none of it. So when Mossuma learns of Fatima's "indiscretion" she knows she has lost another opportunity to gain status. Fatima recognizes this. "Her children aren't people to her. We are her accessories, like a new payron or bangle. She wanted me to marry the boy in the other village because it would have made her look good, not because she was looking out for my welfare. She sent Ali to Iran to make money for her, not so he could build a better life for himself."

Not only does Abawi have a powerful storyline, she creates strong, realistic characters. Fatima is a sweet innocent girl who is not ready yet to leave the carefree ways of childhood behind. She dislikes the changes in her body because they signal her transformation to womanhood and a different code of behaviour that will see her leave behind her best friend and playmate, Samiullah, forever. Despite knowing this code and the repercussions if she disobeys it, Fatima decides to take a risk for the sake of friendship. It is a risk that will cost her and her family dearly.

Samiullah is an honourable young man who unthinkingly puts Fatima at risk of being stoned. His love for her sees him take every risk to protect her and get her to safety.

Fatima's father, Mohammad is a kind, hard-working man who protects his children but still places importance in the distorted idea of honour to some degree. When Mossuma wants to marry off Fatima, Mohammad outright rejects her suggestion saying, " I said enough! No more! I'm not marrying my daughter off to strangers. How do we know how these people will treat her?...I can't trade her to someone in another village for a little bit of money; just because it is in our culture doesn't make it okay...She isn't a sack of wheat. I can't just sell her for a few Afghanis and breathe easily for the rest of my life..."  Mossuma's argument that the boy is from a wealthy Hazara family does nothing to appease Mohammad who tells her there are no innocent groups in Afghanistan, that many including himself have been involved in the killing of innocent women and children. Mohammad defends Fatima even when he learns of her "indiscretion", telling Mossuma he will not beat his daughter. However, bound by his culture, he does agree to marry her off as a second wife.

Mullah Sarwar and Rashid represent two different versions of Islam that are competing for the minds and hearts of people in Afghanistan and throughout the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Mullah Sarwar, is a gentle, intelligent and courageous mullah who is careful to not to judge and seeks to discern. He tells Sami and Fatima,  "Don't listen to what people may have told you growing up...Our culture and tradition is not our religion. As a Muslim woman, you have the right not to be forced into marriage...." He helps Sami and Fatima, first marrying them and then hiding them.

Rashid is the strongest character in the novel and this is reflected in his narratives which reflect his pride and anger. When Rashid returns to his village from the madrassa he looks down on the people as being ignorant in many ways. Filled with pride, he describes himself as "I was the best; I still am." He is insulted that his uncle's family, who took him in after the murder of his family, hasn't  slaughtered a goat upon his return.  After he sees Samiullah with Fatima he views himself as the person to ensure that he is punished. He refers to Sami repeatedly throughout the story in derogatory terms such as "my cousin the infidel", "He's a pathetic fool and a dropout. A failure!"  and a "little ant".  His bitterness and anger at the murder of his family continue to haunt him and it is Mullah Sarwar who recognizes this telling Rashid that his family has given him enough love to survive but that if he takes that love out of his heart, he may "fall into a dangerous insanity that you may not be able to come out of."  Rashid is driven by the need to show his family that he is the "good one" but Mullah Sarwar tells him that he will only succeed in creating yet another tragic story. He tells Rashid that his rage is not because of Sami and Fatima but something he is holding inside himself and that he must fix before he causes even more harm. Eventually, Rashid overwhelmed by the deaths he has already causes, comes to realize the truth of what the Mullah has told him and by the end of the novel he redeems himself by an act of sacrificial love.

Overall, The Secret Sky is a remarkable novel which touches on cultural expectations regarding women in Islamic countries, honour killings, forgiveness, sacrifice and love. The Secret Sky is a love story set amid the turbulent struggle against radical Islam in Afghanistan. It is tragic, unsettling but hopeful.


Book Details:
The Secret Sky by Atia Abawi
New York: Philomel Books      2014
290 pp.

If You're Reading This by Trent Reedy

If You're Reading This is Reedy's fourth novel, which focuses on a young teen who begins receiving his dead father's letters written to him seven years earlier while he served in Afghanistan. His father, worried he might not survive his time in Afghanistan wrote letters so his son would have something to remember him. These letters motivate the young man to change his life and help him come to terms with his father's death years earlier and in doing so to help his family heal.

For fifteen-year-old Mike Wilson grade ten is starting out similar to the past seven years - without his father. His father Mark, died seven years ago on August 28, 2005 in Afghanistan, leaving behind Mike, his younger sister, Mary and his mom, Allison, who has never recovered from the loss of her husband. Mike is a good student who has left behind his football playing days to focus on academics. But now that he's in his sophomore year he's been thinking of returning to playing. At lunch one day, Coach Carter, also Mike's history teacher, tells him time is running out, that he's missed the first set of practices and that he needs to join before the first game on Friday.

Mike works on Derek Harris's farm, helping him with various chores. Mike tells Derek that he really wants to play football but that his mother won't allow him to join. Ever since his father's death, him mother has been overly protective. She works constantly, struggling to provide for Mike and Mary, and has given up on her dream of becoming a nurse.

Mike arrives home to thirteen-year-old  Mary telling him that a letter has arrived in mail for him. When Mike opens the letter he is astonished to discover that it is a letter from his father written when he first arrived in Afghanistan and to be sent to Michael only if he was killed in action and prior to his sixteenth birthday. The letter dated May 29, 2004 tells Mike about what his father did in the Army National Guard where he is a combat engineer, trained in battle tactics with the M16 and other weapons.  He writes that his buddy, Marcelo Ortiz has promised to deliver the letters to Mike. The first letter tells Mike a little about his father's teen years, partying at Nature Spot and giving him advice on high school. He gives Mike his first mission, to go for whatever it is he's been wanting to do. Mike sees this as his father telling him to go for the spot on the football team, so he fakes his mother's signature and hands in the form to Coach. Although his father's first letter mentions that his buddy Ortiz would send the letters, Mike discovers that Ortiz died the same day as his father meaning that someone else has taken on this task.

What follows is a series of five more letters dated from June 12, 2004 until Mike's birthday on September 22, 2004. Each letter reveals to Mike more about his father, who he was, how he met his mother and what he believes in. In each letter Mike's father sets out a mission for him to accomplish including doing something nice for his mother or sister, taking a chance on a girl he might like and working on getting a good mark in a school assignment.  His father also introduces him to the "cowboy way"  telling Mike,  "Out here  in the middle of nowhere, we've had to figure out how to handle things on our own, like cowboys on the range. We might not always be completely sure how to solve a problem or carry out a mission, but we do it anyway. It's the Cowboy Way." 

Besides joining the football team, his father's letters lead Mike to gradually figure out how to handle a bullying teammate, Nick Rhodes, who continues to confront Mike because he is chosen to replace him on the team. The letters also encourage him to take a chance on a relationship even though it might mean getting hurt. In Mike's case it is Isma Rafee, whose parents are from Iran and whose father teaches mathematics at the University of Iowa. He also tries to be patient with his overwhelmed mother who works at a nursing home and seems to be coping poorly with what happened seven years ago.

His father's letters create a sense of conflict in Mike and open more questions about his father. He feels he never really knew his father and it bothers him that he never knew how he died. Because the letters have revealed new things about his father, Mike is determined to find the mystery sender hoping this person will be able to fill in more of the gaps. Repeated online searches of those whom his father mentions in his letters turn up little information. Even a call to his father's old engineer company armory reveals few leads except that the mysterious sender of the letters wants to remain anonymous and is simply following the wishes of Mike's father. Sergeant Andrews who speaks with Mike tells him, "Everyone who knows what you want to know promised your father that we'd let you get through all his messages first, and we promised to let the man sending the letters do this his own way. In the Army, we keep promises..."

The last letter arrives as part of a huge package that contains four video clips. These video clips reveal some startling revelations including the final minutes on the base before his last mission and the identity of the mystery mailer. By the time Mike has watched all the videos his life is in chaos; he's been forced to quit the football team, his relationship with Isma has collapsed and he's being bullied by Nick Rhodes. When he talks to the mystery mailer, someone close to him, Mike learns how his father died. This leads Mike to the realization that he needs to confront his mother  and get her to talk about what happened to his father. He decides to use the Cowboy Way to help his family towards healing and forgiveness.

Discussion

Trent Reedy was an English teacher in Riverside, Iowa before his Iowa National Guard unit was sent to Afghanistan in 2004. He had joined the National Guard like many other Americans, to help pay for his college education. The call to war was both unexpected and frightening. While on deployment, his wife, Amanda, sent him a copy of Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabitha. This book helped Trent Reedy recover some of the hope that he would survive his term of active duty. Reedy corresponded with Paterson who encouraged him to follow his dream of becoming a writer and who helped him gain entrance to Vermont College of Fine Arts' writing program. 

If You're Reading This definitely showcases the strengths of Trent Reedy- his understanding of the life of a soldier, the struggles families of soldiers deployed overseas encounter and the sense of loss and the difficulty in coming to terms with the death of a soldier. Authors successfully write about those things they know well and this comes across in Reedy's novel with respect to army life.

Reedy uses the vehicle of the letters from Mark Wilson to his son Mike, to portray life for the American soldiers in Afghanistan during the "war on terror" and as the means to establish a relationship between father and son. With regard to the latter, occasionally, Mark's letters lacked authenticity and bordered on mundane. In one letter he writes, "Anyway that brings me to the first thing I guess I wanted to tell you. Always have a book going. Always take it with you. That way, if you get stuck someplace...." In another he tells his son about a first date with too much description that makes it seem awkward. The letters also seemed coincidentally to synchronize almost perfectly with what was going on in Mike's life when he read them. Yet for the most part the letters felt very realistic for example when his father tells him about fighting honourably, about respecting women, taking care of his mother and sister or when he encourages Mike to work hard in school.

Reedy has created in Mike a character with depth and honesty that feels genuine. He's already a fairly responsible teenager in contrast to his younger sister, Mary. While Mike cleans the house and has a part time job, Mary is more concerned with clothing, being with her friends and trying to blackmail her brother for money. Yet for all his good qualities, Mike undergoes considerable growth throughout the novel as he learns about his father, deals with new situations at school and a girlfriend.

At first Mike is struggling under the smothering blanket of his mother's over-protectiveness - which resulted in Mike leaving the one sport he really loves and is good at, football.  Desperate to be a part of school and to focus on something other than academics, Mike lies to his mom about what he's doing and  forges her signature on the permission form. But by the end of the novel he begins to recognize that in doing so he lacks the very integrity his father has encouraged him to have and one of the values Coach Carter has been working on with the team. He mans up, telling his mother who is furious at his lies. Nevertheless he maturely faces the consequences which involve more than just his mother's wrath, but also rejection from his teammates who don't know his reason for quitting. Overall Mike matures remarkably through the novel, helping his family work towards healing and also gradually learning that he has to defend the girl he likes, Isma, if he wants to continue his relationship with her.

Young male readers will love the exciting descriptions of the football practices and the games. Reedy manages to capture the tension during the games as well as the rivalry and camaraderie of the young players as they work towards creating a cohesive team. The dialogue between the teenage boys feels realistic, although maybe a bit sanitized, which is quite acceptable! Some readers may find that  novels moves a bit slowly in parts, but the author weaves the letters from Mike's father in often enough to keep interest high. Well written with an appealing cover.

Book Details:
If You're Reading This by Trent Reedy
New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.    2014
296 pp.

Soldier Doll by Jennifer Gold

Jennifer Gold has written a wonderful novel with a very unique storyline. The novel is a series of stories interwoven with a narrative in the present about a girl who finds a small wooden soldier doll..

Soldier Doll opens in the year 2007 with fifteen year old Elizabeth Bryant who, along with her mother Amanda, who is a dermatologist, and her father John have just moved from Vancouver to Toronto. Her father, an aeronautical engineer in the Canadian Armed Forces, will be working out of CFB Trenton before he ships out to Afghanistan.

While searching for a birthday gift for her dad at a community garage sale, Elizabeth finds a small wooden doll. The  doll is very unusual with a baby face, blond hair, blue eyes but it has a soldiers uniform painted on rather than made with clothing. Sensing her dad, who enjoys collecting junk, might like this, Elizabeth purchases the doll. The lady who sells her the soldier doll tells her that she found it by the side of the road. When she gives it to her father on his birthday, her mother seems to think the doll might be special, but can't remember why.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth is understandably having trouble adjusting to life in Toronto. She misses her friends Katie and Elise and is lonely. With less than a week before the start of school, her mother suggests that she go out to meet people. Elizabeth does this one evening and soon discovers a used bookstore called Read It Again Sam. At the bookstore Elizabeth meets the young store clerk, Evan, and Boris, the store owner's large black and white rabbit. 

Elizabeth discovers the store has a copy of Margaret Merriweather's novel, Autumn Evening, one of her favourite books. Evan tells Elizabeth about Merriweather's poetry and asks if she studied Merriweather's 'The Soldier Doll' in grade ten. Stunned at the coincidence of a poem about a soldier doll and her having found just such a doll at the garage sale, Elizabeth learns from Evan that the poem is about a real soldier doll that went missing during a war and which people have been searching for many years. Evan locates a copy of the poem and buys it for Elizabeth and asks her to friend him on Facebook. At home, Elizabeth begins to read the poem, and based on the description of the doll wonders if the doll in the poem is the same one she's found.

The story then moves to Devon, England in 1918 where Edwin (Ned) Roberts has just told his love, Margaret (Meg) Merriweather that having recovered from pneumonia, he plans to enlist. Meg is distraught because none of the boys who enlisted have returned home from the war. Ned proposes to Meg, giving her a ring and she accepts. While she wants to get married immediately, Ned refuses, telling Meg that they should have a proper wedding when he returns home.

Meg lives with her father, a cabinetmaker in a small stone cottage that is over three hundred years old. Her father is proud of Meg's writing and has built her a desk. On her writing desk is a small wooden doll he made for her when her mother died. The doll, named Will, has a sweet baby face. Meg, anxious for Ned before he ships out, insists they do the ritual of handfasting where a couple "hold hands and promise marriage for a year and a day." He reluctantly agrees. Not able to give him a ring, Meg gives Ned her wooden doll now painted in a soldier's uniform.

As Ned goes through training and then is in the trenches at Flanders and Ypres, Meg reads his letters and works on her wedding dress. Part of handfasting was to consummate their marriage which she and Ned had done. Now three months after, Meg finds herself pregnant with his child. And then she learns from Ned's father that he has been killed while rescuing an injured soldier. When Ned's effects are returned to her, Meg notices that the toy soldier is not in his box. In her grief, Meg miscarries her baby. In her immense grief, she begins to write a poem about what has happened.

The narrative returns to Toronto in 2007. Convinced that the soldier doll is an important antique, Elizabeth mentions the soldier doll poem to her parents and how the doll has been missing for years. Her father contacts Dr. Madeleine McLeod, an archeologist and twentieth century historian and they meet with her. She notes that the doll, which she believes was made in the early twentieth century, is wearing the wrong uniform. Margaret Merriweather was English, so the doll should be wearing a British uniform but instead it has a German World War I military uniform She agrees to run tests. 

The story now skips ahead to 1939 Berlin where Hanna Roth finds a small wooden doll in a back cupboard of her father, Franz's  Auguststrasse antique shop. He recounts to her the story of how he came to have the doll. Best friends, Franz, son of a Jewish shop keeper and Max Reinholz, a Christian, were serving together at Ypres, in 1918. Tasked with getting the bodies of their German comrades from No Man's Land, they encounter two English soldiers, Charles and Ned who were also attempting to recover the bodies of dead soldiers. Ned and Charles die while Franz is shot in the shoulder. While searching Ned's body, Max finds the soldier doll and gives it to Franz. After returning home, Franz repainted the soldier doll giving it a German uniform but then hid it away.

That night, Jewish shops are vandalized and Jews rounded up in what becomes Kristallnacht. Franz decides to go help his neighbour, Joseph who is being beaten by Germans. Hanna gives her father the soldier doll as a good luck talisman. But Franz and Joseph, along with many other Jews are arrested. Franz manages to bribe a guard to free Joseph who has told him that he loves Hanna. 

Back in Toronto, Elizabeth returns to the bookstore with some books to donate and tells Evan about how she believes she may have found the lost soldier doll mentioned in Margaret Merriweather's poem. At first Evan is shocked and hurt, but Elizabeth tells him that she really didn't know about the soldier doll she found only days ago until he mentioned Margaret Merriweather's poetry. Evan wonders if Margaret Merriweather is still alive. An internet search reveals she is and living in London. He encourages Elizabeth to contact Margaret through her publisher. 

From this point on, Elizabeth's effort to uncover the origin and history of the doll is interwoven with the stories of how the doll was passed from Franz to various people throughout the 20th century. Franz never returns, instead being deported to a work camp. In 1944, Franz, still in a camp, Terezin (also known as Theresienstadt) in Czechoslovakia, and still in possession of the doll, gives it to twelve-year-old Eva Goodman in the hopes that it will bring her good luck and that she will survive. Franz encourages Eva to fight to stay alive, that the Americans and Russians are coming soon. She tells Franz she has named the soldier doll, Piotr. Sadly, Eva's parents are on the deportation list as Terezin is emptied ahead of the Red Cross visit to make it seem like an idyllic camp.

In Toronto 2007, the tests results come in. The wood of soldier doll is likely from southwestern England in the early twentieth century. However, the boots have been repainted in the last fifty years using paint that has come from Asia. Dr. McLeod tells Elizabeth that it appears the soldier doll has travelled from England to Germany and then on to Asia. She asks her what her plans are for the doll and suggests that publicizing the find might help. Elizabeth states that her plan is to return the soldier doll to Margaret Merriweather.

In Da Nang, Vietnam, Mike Stepanek has a soldier doll in his pocket. Mike is a squad leader for his platoon, which is searching the jungle for Viet Cong. His mother, who got the doll from the nuns at an orphanage in Prague before she fled Czechoslovakia, gave the soldier doll to him as a memento. While searching a Vietnamese village, Mike is horrified by the effects of the war on the villagers and when a small girl begs for food, he impulsively hands her the soldier doll. 

Years later, in 2001 in Toronto Canada, a young university student, Alex Cameron home sick from school,  watches television with his father as the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan are hit by planes and then learns that the Pentagon has also been attacked. Alex's mother, Thuy is due to fly to Kansas City. She calls and tells them that she is fine but that her flight has landed in Chicago and she's going to attempt to drive home. While packing for university Alex finds the soldier doll his mother, Thuy let him have when he was a child. Thuy was a Vietnamese refugee who came to Canada in 1975. The soldier doll was given to her by an American soldier in her village. The war was something Thuy did not like to talk about and his father, a draft dodger from America told him not to press her for more details. 

Alex, takes the soldier doll with him to his university residence. He finds himself becoming more interested in the Middle East political situation so when a friend tells him about free pizza at some army thing, Alex decides to attend. However, Alex finds learning the truth about what is really going on in Afghanistan difficult. The army recruiter talks about the oppression of women in Afghanistan while his roommate Jonathan believes the Americans are simply protecting their access to oil. Deeply conflicted and idealistic while wanting to fight for freedom, Alex enlists against his parents wishes and goes to Afghanistan. In a moment of anger, furious that his parents do not support his decision and no one comes to see him off, he tosses the doll into the street in Toronto. 

Just as Elizabeth and her parents are preparing to travel to England to meet the elderly Margaret Merriweather, tragedy strikes Elizabeth's family. Unexpectedly, the soldier doll brings comfort to her, by connecting her with someone from its past who helps her to come to an important realization about life.

Discussion  

Soldier Doll is excellent novel that explores the theme of war through the various wars of the twentieth century. Author Jennifer Gold uses a small soldier doll to tie together major conflicts over the period of the last one hundred years beginning with World War I and ending with the conflict in Afghanistan. The soldier doll travels from the English countryside, to France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Vietnam, and finally Toronto. Along the way it offers hope and comfort to those suffering from war. 

Soldier Doll explores the long reaching effects of war on families regardless of country or era through the narratives of Meg, Franz, Eva, Mike, Thuy, all survivors of war. In each conflict, the horror, degradation, suffering and loss experienced Elizabeth and her mother too are survivors of war, having lost their father and husband. After learning her father has been killed in Afghanistan, Elizabeth doesn't care anymore about the soldier doll, but Mike Stepanek tells Elizabeth, "It's hard to be the one who lives". Elizabeth finds "it hard to understand how, when her father was gone, she was expected to continue on, to recreate something like the life they'd had before, only with him missing."  She realizes that this is what many people experience in war, the guilt of having survived. They must learn to go on living, not only for those around them, but also to prove the instigators of war wrong. They must have hope. In Elizabeth's life, the unborn child her mother carries, is a symbol of the future and of this hope.

This theme of hope is also present earlier in the novel in the narrative of Eva who after losing her mother and father and her best friend Ilona to deportation to a death camp, does not want to sing when the Red Cross comes to Terezin. But Adam, one of the children initially set against them cooperating with the Nazi's to put on this concert, tells her, "It has to do with hope, I think. If we sing, we have hope, still. And if we have hope, we might survive."  Eva does survive. As does Mike Stepanek. As does the little girl, Thuy, who was given the soldier doll by Mike. The soldier doll also survives and represents all those who survive war, scarred and repainted by the circumstances they lived through.

The ethics of war and when it is justified to fight a war are explored through the conversation between two of the characters, Alex's parents, Don and Thuy. Don is a pacifist who escaped the Vietnam War draft by fleeing to America and he believes "War is never the answer....It's never the reasonable path." However, Thuy who has lived through the Vietnam War states "No one ever wants to go to war... But sometimes you have no choice. Sometimes you have to fight evil with a little bit of evil." This surprises Don because he believes that Thuy, having experienced the suffering war causes, should feel differently. However, Thuy explains "Not every war is the same...What if the Americans hadn't fought the Nazis in World War II?"

Another aspect of war  Soldier Doll explores is the complicated factors that are involved in enlisting to fight in a war. In Meg's opening narrative, Ned doesn't want to go to war but it is the honourable thing to do. He will be judged a coward, given a white feather if he doesn't enlist, despite the fact that it is obvious to him and Meg that he is still not fully recovered from his pneumonia. The Great War saw many men pressured into enlisting, and many others shot for "deserting", convicted of cowardice. This was especially true as the war dragged on, and few men survived.  In Mike's narrative, he tells Elizabeth that sometimes the right thing to do isn't always clear. The first to be drafted, years later Mike acknowledges that his son can't understand why he went to Vietnam. "But it wasn't so simple. I wasn't sure what the right thing to do was. I don't think the right thing was that clear. I guess it never is, not in a war, really."

Soldier Doll is well written, cohesive despite the many narratives, with a poignant ending. It would have been nice to have a map at the end of the novel chronicling all the locations the soldier doll traveled. Unfortunately, the unimaginative cover is likely not to engage the intended audience of teen readers. Which is truly unfortunate as this is novel not to be missed. Some sexual references in the story.

Book Details:
The Soldier Doll by Jennifer Gold
Toronto: Second Story Press       2014
277 pp.

Under The Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples

Under the Persimmon Tree tells the story of two families in war-torn Afghanistan beginning a month after the September 11th attack on the Twin Towers in New York. The story is narrated by two people; American born Elaine Perrin, now Nusrat Faiz, married to Dr. Faiz Ahmed Faiz and living in Peshwar, Pakistan, and Najmah a young girl fleeing her destroyed village in Northern Afghanistan.

The novel opens in Golestan Village, Northern Afghanistan, where Najmah lives with her mother who is expecting a baby very soon, her brother Nur, and her father, Baba-jan. The day begins like any other until a visit by the Taliban ends in catastrophe for Namjah's family. The Taliban take their food and kidnap her brother and her father to be soldiers. A few days later as Najmah and her mother struggle to survive, her baby brother, Habib, is born.

Namjah's Uncle Mohiuddin comes often to the family home, not to help, but to display his avarice openly for their father's land. Her uncle grows poppies for opium, a crop Najmah's father refuses to grow. He also supports the Taliban. Mohiuddin tells Najmah and her mother that they must leave the Kunduz Hills, as they will never be able to manage the farm, but they refuse. They know that Mohiuddin wants their land and it is their duty to protect it until the men return from fighting.

Najmah takes the goats to the mountains to graze and one night watches a wonderful meteor shower. She does not understand this celestial display and is terrified. When she decides to return to her home in the valley Najmah witnesses the destruction of her family. Her life is further shattered by this event. She is taken in by her neighbour's son, Akhtar, and his wife Khalida, who with their two sons plan to walk to the border town of Torkhum, to escape the Taliban and the coming war with America. When they arrive in Torkhum, Najmah decides she must travel on to Peshawar to see if she can locate her father and younger brother.

Meanwhile, in Peshawar, Nusrat visits her husband, Faiz's family. Nusrat met Faiz when she was attending Columbia University in New York. They both lived in the same old brownstone walk-up. Faiz was a physician working at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital. A year after they were married, Faiz confessed to Nusrat that he was concerned about the terrible situation developing in his homeland, Afghanistan. He felt he needed to return there, but with an American wife, Faiz felt this was not possible. However, Nusrat was willing to go with him, and in 2001 they traveled to Peshawar, where Faiz's father had moved the family. Shortly afterwards, Nusrat opened her garden with its huge persimmon tree to the poor refugee children while Faiz went to Mazar-i-Sharif to work in a medical camp.

Nusrat has not had word from Faiz for weeks. To take her mind off of her husband's situation, Nusrat decides to organize a dinner party and afterwards invite her husband's family to watch a meteor shower in the backyard. But Asma refuses saying such shooting stars are an omen.

The story of Nusrat and Namjah intersect when Namjah manages to travel alone to Peshawar and is eventually taken to Nusrat's home. Now they both wait as the American forces gradually liberate more and more of Afghanistan, to learn the fate of their loved ones. While they wait, Nusrat teaches Namjah English and helps her to heal from her terrible ordeal, all the while coming to the realization of what has happened to her beloved Faiz.

Discussion  

Under The Persimmon Tree is the heartrending love story of Nusrat and Faiz, and the loss and suffering of Namjah.  Nusrat (formerly Elaine) and Faiz's love story is beautifully described in flashbacks narrated by Nusrat. The gentle, caring Faiz is a most wonderful antidote to a heart broken by the loss of a beloved sister. And Namjah's family life, although difficult in the best of times, is tied to the land, where "the sky is so close you can reach up and touch it with your hands, and to the beautiful mountains."

The author very effectively paints a portrait of a society destroyed by Taliban rule, of a people terrorized by religious fanaticism and cruelty. We see how the poor farmers of Afghanistan were often powerless to protect themselves and to avoid becoming part of the Taliban insurgency.

An interesting aspect of this book was Elaine's struggle to find meaning in her life after the death of her sister, Margaret. Sadly Elaine's Christian faith did not continue to develop as she grew into adulthood and therefore could not help her to understand and come to terms with the loss of Margaret. The void she felt spiritually was reflected in the modern, plastic home with its purple Koolaid and packaged food as compared with the texturally rich and colourful apartment that Faiz lives in. Faiz's beliefs are woven into his daily living, something Elaine's modern American family seemed to lack.

Elaine's belief that her Christian faith was unable to provide answers to the questions of why, led her, after meeting Faiz, to look towards Islam and to eventually convert. When she goes to see the Imam Inayatollah of a mosque in Manhattan Elaine tells him, "I am a mathematician...I need a religion that's compatible with science and mathematics. In Islam, is there a belief in an order to the universe." She is directed to consider the work of Muslim astronomers and mathematicians. At this time in her life, Elaine seems to feel that Christianity has no concept of an ordered universe - that things just happen and that it cannot explain the reason behind her sister Margaret's death. Of course this is not true, as she comes to understand much later on. Christianity, although long maligned as incompatible with science, has a rich history of both the preservation of scientific knowledge and the discovery of the nature of the world. There are more than enough Christian scientists and mathematicians whose work has demonstrated that God has designed a universe governed by laws that can be known and understood. Eventually, Elaine, now Nusrat comes to understand that the answers she was looking for could have been found in her faith, had she chosen to see them. Nusrat also begins to realize that her rejection of her parents faith and her Judeo-Christian heritage have hurt her parents greatly and that this is something she must address.

Under The Persimmon Tree tackles themes of identity, loss, love, coming of age, and war. It is beautifully written and provides another window into a unique and beautiful culture, far different from Western culture. There is a helpful map of Afghanistan and a glossary of Dari terms in the back.

Book Details:
Under The Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples
Farrar, Strauss and Giroux     2005
275 pp.