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list price: $24.99
edition:Audiobook
also available: Paperback eBook Audiobook
category: Children's Fiction
published: Nov 2021
ISBN:9781773068763
publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd

Wanting Mor

by Rukhsana Khan, read by Rogin Rashidan

tagged: middle east, girls & women, stepfamilies
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.

About the Authors
Rukhsana Khan was born in Lahore, Pakistan and grew up in Dundas, Ontario. She is the author of a number of children's books, including Muslim Child, Many Windows, The Roses in My Carpets, and The Big Red Lollipop. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.

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.

Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
Age:
10 to 14
Grade:
5 to 9
Reading age:
10 to 14
Awards
  • Short-listed, Muslim Writers Awards Childrens Books
  • Commended, IRA Notable Books for a Global Society
  • Commended, Capitol Choices Noteworthy Titles for Children and Teens
  • Commended, USBBY Outstanding International
  • Commended, SSLI Honour Book
  • Winner, Middle East Book Award
  • Long-listed, CYBIL Awards
Editorial Reviews

...[T]he storyteller's descriptive language is lovely... Her characters are realistic...Young readers' eyes will be opened to life in another culture. Teens will enjoy this book, especially if the liked Three Cups of Tea...

— VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates)

...The unique hero sees open roads, where others might only squint at dead ends.

— Children's Book News

A searing opening chapter...will draw readers into [Jameela's] story...[Readers] will certainly sympathize with her and rejoice in the ultimate outcome.

— Horn Book

...Khan's account of [Jameela's] life...makes for good reading. As narrator, Jameela looks out in the world of Islamic Afghanistan from behind her chador, and it is her perspective...of that world that gives this book both its immediacy and its singularity.

— Globe and Mail

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