Words in the Dust, by Trent Reedy, is about Zulaikha, a 12 year old girl growing up in war-torn Afghanistan. Though the life in Afghanistan is getting better since the removal of the Taliban, things aren’t any different for Zulaikha. She’s still the girl with the cleft lip that the boys call Donk...
I enjoyed this more than I expected to. While based on true events, it is based loosely enough that the author wrote a good, compelling, suspenseful story. While the author is not an Afghani girl, he managed to write from the main character's perspective smoothly and emotionally. And while I d...
I won this book through GoodReads! Having the privilege of a first read was lots of fun! I really enjoyed this novel! The story follows the life of a young Afghan girl, Zulaikha, who, born with a cleft lip, struggles with her own self image as she comes of age. In a country previous wrought by th...
Amazing! And the audio was outstanding. The addition of the news feeds was haunting. Unfortunately, they sounded real and the stances of the various media outlets sounded way too much like actual media today. This makes this fictional story scary to me. The country is divided and the polarization...
While I think the author's premise and themes are good, I found this book to be contrived and not authentic. The voice of the protagonist didn't sound like a real teenager to me, but rather like an adult trying to sound like a teen. I realize that Mike is supposed to be more responsible than othe...