Shahana

April 15, 2016
A girl lives in Azad Kashmir with her younger brother following the deaths of the rest of her family due to border violence in this novel, part of the UNICEF-produced Through My Eyes series. Young teen Shahana is a talented seamstress; this skill garners a meager living for her and her 9-year-old brother, Tanveer. They live amid the constant fear of ongoing fighting and the threat of sale into slave labor or forced marriage by menacing Mr. Nadir, the shopkeeper to whom she sells her embroidery. When they come upon a boy named Zahid unconscious by the river, she's terrified but is convinced by Tanveer to take the chance of helping him. Shahana quickly realizes that he's ostensibly her enemy, from neighboring Jammu and Kashmir, but also discovers that they have much in common: they are both Muslim, both plagued by horrific loss wrought by the conflict. If their discussions at times feel a bit conspicuously expository in their recounting of the many political details at play in their struggle, they are also genuinely moving, and the novel strikes a believable balance between an ultimately hopeful tone and the many realistically agonizing situations faced by its extremely sympathetic narrator. A simple, clear map of the setting, a short glossary, and a timeline round out the book. An informative and effective work of contemporary fiction. (Fiction. 13-18)

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July 1, 2016

Gr 6-8-In present-day Azad Kashmir, 14-year-old Shahana is trying to care for her nine-year-old brother Tanveer, earning money from her skillful embroidery after war and illness have claimed the rest of their family and destroyed their school. When the two find an unconscious boy near the Line of Control, they bring him home, nurse him back to health, and protect him from Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants, including the benevolent Amaan, by claiming that Zahid is their older brother. Their tenuous situation is exploited by a ruthless merchant, Mr. Nadir, who threatens to report them to authorities unless Shahana consents to an arranged marriage to the highest bidder and to sending Tanveer to work in a rug factory. Hope glimmers with the reappearance of Shahana's friend Ayesa, who has been in seclusion with her mother, a half-widow since the disappearance of her husband. Ayesha, who has a computer, shows Shahana a way to get her story out to the world, but when Tanveer disappears, Shahana becomes desperate to rescue him from what she believes is his captivity. Part of a series about children living in the world's conflict zones, this volume is engrossing, and readers will empathize with the characters and their situations, even Amaan's ambivalence over participating in jihad. The narrative is enhanced and made more accessible by means of a map, author's note, and glossary. VERDICT A good choice for school and public libraries to support interest in, curriculum on, and discussion of international current events.-Marie Orlando, formerly at Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

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