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Words In The Dust - Audio (2012)

by Trent Reedy(Favorite Author)

4.04 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0545472822 (ISBN13: 9780545472821)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Scholastic Inc.

review 1: I wasn't looking forward to reading this because I thought it might be too serious and I prefer light, funny, or dystopian. I thought this one might feel too real and I get very emotional very easily. I bit the bullet and started reading it and all of a sudden my whole life drifted away and I was in hot, dusty, rural Afghanistan feeling all of the feelings of a 13 year old girl who lived there. Her life is so different than mine and I craved being in the town with her, watching her, praying for her. I thought I would get frustrated because of the way women are treated there or get mad that she didn't understand how much better her life could be. But I didn't. I just wanted to follow her and understand her life. The only time I got frustrated was when it was certain that th... moree American army captain did not understand the cultural rules and disrespected the father. I stayed up too late, and was grateful my own daughter let me read all the next morning. I couldn't put the book down maybe for the first time not because I really wanted to see what happened in the end but because I wanted to be near her in her home learning from her and the other women until her story was finished. I am thrilled to share this with my students this fall. I hope it makes them as hungry for Afghani culture as these characters made me.
review 2: Although shelved as juvenile in our collection, I would be more likely to recommend this to young adult readers because of the background of the story. Having listened to this on audio I won't be able to spell the names except phonetically , please excuse this. Su-la-har and her family live in Afghanistan early into the U.S. intervention. The Americans are bringing stability and money into a stagnant economy. Su-la-har's father is receiving welding contracts on building operations and enjoying a much needed infusion of money. This is a traditional Afghan family and Reedy does a great job of introducing us to the everyday burden of tasks on the women without interrupting the story. Su-la-har has no future because of her face deforming cleft lip. But as we see the reality of marriage for Su-la-har's beautiful sister, we are left wondering who is the luckier. I would recommend this to anyone interested in people in other cultures. The audio is excellently done and I appreciated hearing the pronunciation of the names and Afghan phrasing which I made the book rich. I would also highly recommend taking the time to listen to the interviews at the end of the story. One is with the author explaining how he came to be in Afghanistan and experience Afghan life and the other with the narrator, an Afghan-American women steeped in the culture of her Afghan culture, but very American. Both are very interesting and well done. less

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