Customer Reviews

Kiss the Dust

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Tara Hawrami is a thirteen-year-old girl living in Iraq in the 1980's. She has what we would call a normal life-living in a nice house, going shopping with her best friend, and having the mistaken feeling that nothing particularly bad is going to happen to her. But then the inevitable comes. Tara has always known that she was a Kurd, and has maybe even faintly known that Kurds are hated by the Iraqi goverment...but one day, when walking home from school, she sees a teenaged Kurdish boy die for his beliefs.

Things all happen in short order after that, and the Hawramis, who find themselves dodging the Iraqi government, find themselves living in a remote Kurdish village that is unlike anything they have ever known. The journey continues when the village becomes the target of brutal bombing raids, and it seems that the family must become refugees in order to escape danger. Experiences in two refugee camps follow, and Tara and her family wonder if their life will ever be what it was before.

As I said before, I was disappointed with this book. It seems as if the author had a very promising topic and a character that could potentially make the story seem real to readers. But something seems flawed in this book. Laird's writing style is somehow "detached" and it doesn't really feel like you are "right there" (which is how it should in a good book). In what should have been some of the most exciting parts of the book, I felt kind of bored and ready to "get on with it." Character development seems a little weak, too. We never seemed to really get to know Tara-there was too much time spent telling what she did, not enough time spent telling what she thought.

The one great thing about this book is that it lets us know about a conflict, a people, and a time in the not-so-distant past that many of us probably don't know about. I think it's good to read books like this that open our eyes to what's happening around us; it's just too bad that the quality of writing and character development in this book was far from 5-star.

As a wealthy intellectual Kurd, I always find difficulties in telling my peers about the sufferings of my people. There are millions of Kurdish refugees "suffering" around the world and host countries should have some background idea about where they come from and why they left the comfort of their homeland. To me, this book came as a God's blessing so that to order tens of copies to every friend who ever asked me about my ethnic origin and why I am not serving my people.I am just finished with A Kurdish review on the book in the most widely circulated Kurdish newspaper. If you ever come across with a Kurd in your civilized world and feel bad about living on your tax payments, please read this book to realize that "Tara" and her examples were not beggars; they were just victims of this crazy world. The author should be congratulated for this outstanding work. She seems to know more of our culture than many of the true nationals. She must have lived between us for years to come up with this three dimentional insight into our culture, emotions and feelings. The book is very readable and of the right size. The cover is impeccable.

I thought that this book was really good we are reading the book in Language Arts and study its history

I read this book to my students in a sole-charge school when the setting was still hot in the news, back in the early 90s. The story had us all gasping with identification as these blessed children in rural New Zealand imagined a life in turmoil. We still remember the pleasant life and then the flight over the mountains in the night.
This books sits with Ann Holm's "I Am David", or Ian Seraillier's "The Silver Sword", as a novel that will help children understand the human suffering behind world politics and the nightly news. History is being made every day and World War Two is not the only history that gets a break in literature.
Our discussions, our map work, our search for photographs of the region and the culture made this a rich reading experience indeed and I whole heartedly recommend it.

Kiss the Dust is an exciting story of a girl ,Tara, who's father is into problems with the secret police. The family must move around a lot and taa runs into different problems and scary situations.

This book probably would have been better if it wasn't the 3rd book i've read about 2 girls trying to escape communism or poverty. It's the same story one of the parents are in danger of being kiled by the government takes off leaves the family the family then meet him in an isolated village of some sort they then find out the town is in danger so they move across a border riskking their lives yet again and in the end they move to a stable home where they live hapily ever after.

Have i missed anything out and i didn't even finish it so please tell me if i'm wrong

I thought KISS THE DUST was a very good book. It's about a girl
named TARA and her family. One afternoon a soldier comes to their house. TARA's father was sick. The solier tells BABA the police are looking for him.SO they have to move away from their home.Most of the book is about them moving around the world and their problems.

I thought this was an extraordinary book! It was packed with adventure, and every moment made you want to read more! This book never slows down, and with a slight variation of the amount of excitment here and there, I would say this book was almost all excitement. The author explains each character so well, and each scene and feeling so emotionally, you realy begin to think of yourself in the same situation as the characters. The one thing I did not like about the book was the ending. For the end of a story, there should be a last sentence that wraps things up;this book just didn't have it. But other than that, I highly recommend this book!

This book is very exciting. If you are looking for a action packed book, this is a good book for you. There is a bombing scene in it, which is very exciting. I hope you read it!

I thought KISS THE DUST was a very good book. It's about a girl
named TARA and her family. One afternoon a soldier comes to their house. TARA's father was sick. The solier tells BABA the police are looking for him.SO they have to move away from their home.Most of the book is about them moving around the world and their problems.