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 is an award-winning author and storyteller. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, she is an expert on books with international and Muslim themes. She has presented at schools and communities across Canada and the US, as well as at the 2006 ALA Conference in New Orleans and the 2008 IBBY Congress in Denmark. Her book, Wanting Mor won the Middle East Book Award. Rukhsana lives in Toronto with her family.
ROGIN RASHIDAN is a voice-actress and associate casting director with a passion for exploring the intersections of visual storytelling and diversity. She began her career in film after receiving her Diploma in Performing Arts from the SchoolCreative Institute of Arts in 2017. Soon after, she graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelors in Sociology & Criminology, driving her ambition to represent minorities in film and TV. Rogin has lent her voice to projects such as Nintendo’s Dragalia Lost, SAIT and the narrator for the audiobook of Where Things Touch by Bahar Orang.
Prizes
- Capitol Choices Noteworthy Titles for Children and TeensCommended 2010
- IRA Notable Books for a Global SocietyCommended 2010
- Muslim Writers Awards Childrens BooksShort-listed 2011
- Middle East Book AwardWinner 2009
- SSLI Honour BookCommended 2009
- CYBIL AwardsLong-listed 2009
- USBBY Outstanding InternationalCommended 2010
Review Quotes
