Thunder Over Kandahar
Registered by gypsysmom of Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on 2/10/2017
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
This is a hardcover book. I purchased it at a library book sale.
This book is one of the 100 YA books that CBC says should make you proud to be Canadian. I don't read a lot of YA fiction but this certainly seems to me to be a great story. The author spent time in Afghanistan to research this book and then had it vetted by numerous readers including Afghani Muslims.
Yasmine grew up in Britain but her parents were Afghani and they decided the family should move back to Afghanistan to try to help their country. Her father taught at a university but her mother, a lawyer, could not find work in that land that was still very traditional. While Yasmine and her mother were walking to meet her father one afternoon several vehicles full of Taliban pulled up to them and beat the mother. She was left with a badly broken leg among other injuries. The family decided to move to a village where the father's family had an ancestral home. A young girl the same age as Yasmine, Tamanna, came to deliver bread and she was asked if she would be a companion to Yasmine. Tamanna had not been educated but she was very clever and she soon learned to read and write and to speak English. Yasmine's mother was still not recovered from her injuries and they decided to go see the medic at the Forward Operating Base of the UN forces just outside of the village. On the way there they were attacked and both mother and father were severely injured. The pair were airlifted to Kandahar Airforce Base but rules prohibited Yasmine accompanying them. The forces arranged for a local driver to take her to Kandahar and Yasmine convinced Tamanna (who was to be married to a much older man) to accompany her. The driver abandoned Yasmine and Tamanna on the road because he objected to being given orders by a girl. Yasmine and Tamanna knew that they could not travel without a man accompanying them on the road. They took to the mountains, travelling by night, to find a way into Pakistan. The girls supported each other throughout the trip and Yasmine even changed identity with Tamanna when she could no longer travel.
I loved the strength of the two girls in a time and place where girls were considered second class citizens with no rights. There is also lots of information about the history of Afghanistan which shows it was not always a place of religious oppression. This book was published in 2010 so it does not include recent developments in Afghanistan but, in essence, nothing much has changed. As Sharon McKay says at the end of the timeline in the book "Peace remains...beyond reach..."
Yasmine grew up in Britain but her parents were Afghani and they decided the family should move back to Afghanistan to try to help their country. Her father taught at a university but her mother, a lawyer, could not find work in that land that was still very traditional. While Yasmine and her mother were walking to meet her father one afternoon several vehicles full of Taliban pulled up to them and beat the mother. She was left with a badly broken leg among other injuries. The family decided to move to a village where the father's family had an ancestral home. A young girl the same age as Yasmine, Tamanna, came to deliver bread and she was asked if she would be a companion to Yasmine. Tamanna had not been educated but she was very clever and she soon learned to read and write and to speak English. Yasmine's mother was still not recovered from her injuries and they decided to go see the medic at the Forward Operating Base of the UN forces just outside of the village. On the way there they were attacked and both mother and father were severely injured. The pair were airlifted to Kandahar Airforce Base but rules prohibited Yasmine accompanying them. The forces arranged for a local driver to take her to Kandahar and Yasmine convinced Tamanna (who was to be married to a much older man) to accompany her. The driver abandoned Yasmine and Tamanna on the road because he objected to being given orders by a girl. Yasmine and Tamanna knew that they could not travel without a man accompanying them on the road. They took to the mountains, travelling by night, to find a way into Pakistan. The girls supported each other throughout the trip and Yasmine even changed identity with Tamanna when she could no longer travel.
I loved the strength of the two girls in a time and place where girls were considered second class citizens with no rights. There is also lots of information about the history of Afghanistan which shows it was not always a place of religious oppression. This book was published in 2010 so it does not include recent developments in Afghanistan but, in essence, nothing much has changed. As Sharon McKay says at the end of the timeline in the book "Peace remains...beyond reach..."
Journal Entry 3 by gypsysmom at Fringe Festival in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Released 6 yrs ago (7/26/2017 UTC) at Fringe Festival in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
This book will be left somewhere on our journey for the BookCrossing Fringe Festival release.
When you find a BookCrossing book it is yours to do with what you like. You can read it and keep it or pass it on or if you don't think it is your kind of book pass it on to someone who might like it or release it in a spot for someone else to find like you just did. Whatever you choose it would be great if you could write a short note letting us know what new adventures the book is on.
When you find a BookCrossing book it is yours to do with what you like. You can read it and keep it or pass it on or if you don't think it is your kind of book pass it on to someone who might like it or release it in a spot for someone else to find like you just did. Whatever you choose it would be great if you could write a short note letting us know what new adventures the book is on.
