Description
Winner of the Middle East Book Award, Youth Fiction category
Jameela lives with her mother and father in Afghanistan. Despite the fact that there is no school in their poor, war-torn village, and Jameela lives with a birth defect that has left her with a cleft lip, she feels relatively secure, sustained by her faith and the strength of her beloved mother, Mor.
But when Mor suddenly dies, Jameela's father impulsively decides to seek a new life in Kabul. He remarries, a situation that turns Jameela into a virtual slave to her demanding stepmother. When the stepmother discovers that Jameela is trying to learn to read, she urges her father to simply abandon the child in Kabul's busy marketplace. Jameela ends up in an orphanage.
Throughout it all, it is the memory of Mor that anchors her and in the end gives Jameela the strength to face her father and stepmother when fate brings them into her life again.
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3
Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6
Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3
Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
Author Bio
Rukhsana Khan brings us to the reality that faces so many of the world's children. This story was inspired by her meeting with one unforgettable boy and his family. Rukhsana Khan is the author of Muslim Child and Bedtime Ba-a-alk. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Prizes
- Muslim Writers Awards Childrens BookShort-listed 2011
- Capitol Choices Noteworthy Titles for Children and TeensCommended 2010
- IRA Notable Books for a Global SocietyCommended 2010
- CYBIL AwardsLong-listed 2009
- SSLI Honor BookCommended 2009
- USBBY Outstanding International BooksCommended 2010
- Middle East Book AwardWinner 2009
Review Quotes
