Sophie's Sojourn in Persia [Paperback]

Diane Marquart Moore (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

Sophie’s Sojourn in Persia relates the adventures of Sophie, a 13- year-old American girl who moves with her family to southern Iran. From the moment of arrival in this fascinating mideastern country, Sophie finds herself in one frustrating situation after another, some of which involve rescuing her pesky sister, Suzy. She spends many hours and much theatrics trying to talk her dad into buying a Persian cat from the bazaar in Abadan. Meanwhile, she learns to adjust to a totally new way of life, reading instead of watching television, listening to stories told by Jabar (her family’s houseboy), visiting Isfahan, Shiraz, and Kharg Island, and enjoying Iranian holidays, international and Iranian friends. A year after settling in Iran, Sophie and her family realize that a revolution is brewing and westerners are a chief target. The exciting climax tells of the family’s narrow escape in a helicopter and their return to America.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Paperback: 143 pages
• Publisher: PublishAmerica (December 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1413744583
• ISBN-13: 978-1413744583
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,123,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Diane Marquart Moore is a writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and news articles who divides her residence between in New Iberia, Louisiana, and Sewanee, Tennessee. She has published 26 books, and her short stories and poetry have been featured in The Southwestern Review at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Interdisciplinary Humanities, and The Xavier Review. She has published young adult fiction, including Martin's Quest, which was a finalist in the Heekins Foundation Award for Best Children's Fiction. Diane was a former editor of Acadiana Lifestyle magazine in New Iberia, LA and has written for The Daily Iberian, The Acadian Profile magazine, and the Yaddasht Haftegy (while living in Iran during the 70's). She authors a blog entitled "A Words Worth." Search her titles under Diane Marquart Moore and Diane Moore. For ebook Silence Never Betrays go to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/66678.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beauty and danger, November 13, 2008

By 

Isabel Anders "Isabel Anders" (Sewanee, Tennessee) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sophie's Sojourn in Persia (Paperback)

Dad decided we would fly to Isfahan and visit some of the places that had made Iran famous during the reign of the Shah Abbas. ...
On the plane Dad told us that there was an old saying about Isfahan: "Isfahan is half the world."
"What does that mean?" Suzy asked,
"It means that half the beauty in the world is in that city," he explained.

In Sophie's Sojourn in Persia, 13-year-old Sophie and her five-year-old sister Suzy move with their parents from Louisiana to southern Iran in the days before the revolution. Their father, an American oil company executive on assignment for two years, wants them and their mother to learn from the culture and experience the country's grandeur, especially in places such as Isfahan.

"Do they have streets made of gold like heaven?" she asked.
"Well, no, but there're bright turquoise domes on the mosques, and our hotel, the Shah Abbas, is one of the most beautiful in the world."
"There are also nightingales and lovely rose gardens," my mother added.

Amid the lush landscape with its desert extremes, Sophie and Suzy acquire and care for a hard-won pet; meet people who stretch their understanding of "rights" and "wrongs"; and find themselves and their parents caught in the vortex of history as this country changes almost overnight--and leaves them no choice but to escape its beauties and terrors, clinging to all that means most to them in the world.

A wonderful read that informs and delights. For young adults, families, especially armchair travelers. Experience with Sophie "the fairy tale part of old Persia where kings had lived in grand palaces and ruled a kingdom like Paradise"--before the fall.