Amazon.com Review
When her anthropologist mom takes an assignment to study African tribal customs, 14-year-old Jodie reluctantly leaves her familiar California home for a tiny village in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Once there, Jodie encounters drenching humid heat, outdoor toilets that must always be checked for snakes and scorpions, and a plethora of new odors, most of them unpleasant. "Trapped between an open sewer and a display of hanging, smelly dried fish, I couldn't resist asking with a gag, 'Are these some of the great new smells you were talking about?'" Despite her culture shock, Jodie manages to make a place for herself in the village, mostly due to her close friendship with Khadi, a local girl her age. Khadi teaches Jodie Krio, the tribal language, and Jodie teaches Khadi how to read. So when Khadi enters a female secret society called Sande, where no "poo-mui" or "white person" is allowed, Jodie's feelings are hurt. Her hurt quickly turns to anger and fear when she learns that the Sande's last rite of passage involves female circumcision. Can Jodi save Khandi from this age-old custom that horrifies her 21st-century sensibilities? Is it even her place to do so?
Author and photographer Cristina Kessler's firsthand experience of life in Sierra Leone enriches this debut novel about a debilitating custom that is just now beginning to attract global attention. A good choice for high school classroom discussions on multiculturalism, tolerance, and human rights. (Ages 13 to 16) --Jennifer Hubert
From Publishers Weekly
In her first novel, Kessler (One Night) explores sophisticated issues of cultural contrast between life in America and a remote African village through the eyes of a 14-year-old California girl. Providing an educational look into Sierra Leone's traditions and language, the author creates a likeable main character who is realistically headstrong and good-hearted. When Jodie's mother receives a grant to study in Sierra Leone, the girl suddenly finds herself living with snakes and scorpions and without electricity or indoor plumbing. She does find a soulmate in Khadi, a local girl who helps her see the beauty of the village and the culture ("Having Khadi, who I could barely talk to, hold my hand, as we walked past huts and goats seemed totally natural"). But when Khadi comes of age and is inducted into the women's Secret Society, which practices female circumcision, Jodie must decide whether or not to interfere. She wants to spare Khadi the pain (and possibility of infection or even death) but knows that getting involved might alienate her from her friend and banish her and her mother from their community. Jodie's observations of life in Sierra Leone occasionally read like exoticism ("Khadi, bare-breasted as usual and dripping wet, looked like a picture out of an art book"), and the ending, though realistic, comes a bit abruptly. Overall, the novel does a solid job of combining a complicated issue with a compelling plot. Ages 10-14.
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