Sahwira: An African Friendship [Hardcover]

Carolyn Marsden (Author), Phillip Matzigkeit (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 2009 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

Set in the volatile Rhodesia of the 1960s, this dramatic story, narrated from alternating viewpoints, tells of an interracial friendship tested.

Like his best friend, Blessing — a Shona boy whose father is his church’s pastor — twelve-year-old Evan, a white American, lives on a Methodist mission in what is now Zimbabwe. Blessing attends the mission school for black Africans, while Evan goes to a whites-only boys’ school in town. As Martin Luther King Jr. marches a world away, local headlines announce the murder of a white farmer by African independence fighters. Evan’s school friends immediately side with the whites, the headmaster turns them into cadets in training, and soon incendiary handbills are circulating. As tensions mount both on and off the mission, Evan is forced to choose. But how can he know how farreaching his choice will be?

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Growing up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1964, Blessing, 12, hears his Shona pastor father preach about peace. Evan, his white best friend, also has a minister father (he works for the American Mission) who echoes the messages of Gandhi and Dr. King. But Blessing feels pressured to join the militants and fight for freedom from colonial rule, while Evan hears the racist diatribes in his segregated school (“we built this civilized country”) and trains as a cadet to fight the “Communist” agitators, even though he recognizes the injustices of the white government. Told in the alternating third-person viewpoints of the two young people, the political divisions among the huge cast are not easy to follow. It is the friendship drama that will hold readers, along with the confusion, conflict, and betrayal within family, church, and community. Is Evan a Judas? Is the Mission a Communist hotbed? The connections with the civil-rights struggle in the U.S. will also touch readers. Grades 5-8. --Hazel Rochman

About the Author

Carolyn Marsden is the acclaimed author of many books for young readers. While herparents were missionaries in Mexico, her cousin (and coauthor) Philip Matzigkeit’s parents were missionaries in Rhodesia. She lives in La Jolla, California.

Philip Matzigkeit grew up in rural Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He lives in La Jolla, California and is an instructor at San Diego State University.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick (April 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763635758
• ISBN-13: 978-0763635756
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,190,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #77 in Books > Children's Books > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction > Africa

More About the Author

Carolyn Marsden grew up in Mexico City and Southern California. Although she wrote for adults for many years, she began to write for children after the birth of her daughters. She attended Vermont College and earned an MFA in Writing for Children. Her first book, The Gold-Threaded Dress, published by Candlewick, was a Booklist Top Ten Youth Novel of 2002. Her second novel, Silk Umbrellas, was a Texas Bluebonnet nominee and Booklist Top Ten Art Novel of 2003. Since then, Carolyn has published several more award-winning middle grade chapter books with Candlewick and Viking, almost all with multicultural themes. The Buddha's Diamonds was a Southern California Booksellers Association finalist and a Booklist Top Ten Religion Novel of 2008. Sahwira: An African Friendship, is set in what is now Zimbabwe. Take Me With You was a Booklist Top Ten Historical Novel of 2010 and a Booklist Top Ten Religious Novel of 2010. Carolyn's latest book, Starfields (Candlewick 2011), touches on the 2012 prophesy. Her next book, The White Zone, is set in contemporary Iraq and will be released by Carolrhoda in February 2012. Carolyn lives with her Thai husband and two half-Thai daughters.