The Good Braider [Hardcover]

Terry Farish (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 1, 2012

In spare free verse laced with unforgettable images, Viola's strikingly original voice sings out the story of her family's journey from war-torn Sudan, to Cairo, and finally to Portland, Maine. Here, in the sometimes too close embrace of the local Southern Sudanese Community, she dreams of South Sudan while she tries to navigate the strange world of America - a world where a girl can wear a short skirt, get a tattoo or even date a boy; a world that puts her into sharp conflict with her traditional mother who, like Viola, is struggling to braid together the strands of a displaced life. Terry Farish's haunting novel is not only a riveting story of escape and survival, but the universal tale of a young immigrant's struggle to build a life on the cusp of two cultures.

The author of The Good Braider has donated this book to the Worldreader program

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

**STARRED REVIEW**
Gr 9 Up–The Good Braider follows Viola on a journey from her home in ravaged Sudan to Cairo and finally to the folds of a Sudanese community in Maine. Viola’s story, told in free verse, is difficult to read without a constant lurking sense of both dread and hope. In the opening scene she gazes at the curve of the back of a boy walking the street in front of her, only to view his senseless execution moments later. This tension never completely dissipates, though it takes on different forms throughout her story; by the end it is replaced not by the fear of execution or of the lecherous soldier who forces her to trade herself for her family’s safety, but by the tension of walking the line between her mother’s cultural expectations and the realities of her new country. Yet while Farish so lyrically and poignantly captures Viola’s wrenching experience leaving her home, navigating the waiting game of refugee life, and acculturating into the United States, she’s equally successful in teasing out sweet moments of friendship and universal teenage experiences. Viola’s memorable, affecting voice will go far to help students step outside of their own experience and walk a mile in another’s shoes.–Jill Heritage Maza, Montclair Kimberley Academy, Montclair, NJ August 2012

From Booklist

**STARRED REVIEW**
Like Mark Bixler’s adult book The Lost Boys of Sudan (2005), this powerful novel tells today’s refugee story from a young viewpoint, but here, the Sudanese teen is a girl. In free-verse poems, Viola, 16, remembers being driven from home in the brutal civil war, then the long, barefoot trek to Khartoum and Cairo, escaping landmines and suffering hunger along the way, until at last she and her mother get refugee status, board a plane, and join her uncle in Portland, Maine’s Sudanese community. Never exploitative, Viola’s viewpoint will grip readers with its harsh truths: the shame of her rape in Sudan and the loss of her “bride wealth”; the heartbreak when her little brother dies during their escape; her wrenching separation from her grandmother. The contemporary drama in Maine is also moving and immediate. At 17, Viola is thrilled to go to school, and she makes friends, even a boyfriend who teaches her to drive: but can he get over her rape? Always there is her mother, enraged by the new ways. An essential addition to the Booklist Core Collection feature, “The New Immigration Story.” — Hazel Rochman, July 1, 2012

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Skyscape (May 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761462678
• ISBN-13: 978-0761462675
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #58,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

As a writer of books for young adults and kids, I am fascinated by what I continue to learn about readers. I love to meet my teen readers and hear them talk ... about books, about everything! And I know that some readers are not teens. One of my jobs is meeting with inmates in a state prison after they have been in a book discussion program offered by the Humanities Council and the prison's Family Connection Center. The book club is part of the men's work to develop skills as fathers, even though - or especially because - they are separated from their kids. My job is to listen to them as they talk about the books they read and what the books mean to them and their children. Can you imagine what one of their favorite books is? It's ONE HUNDRED DRESSES, the 1944 book by Eleanor Estes about a Polish immigrant girl who stands up to bullies in her class. The inmates take that story to their children to give them a vision for facing tough odds. As a writer, I can't imagine writing a character without grit, like Wanda in that book.
That is why I write. To create a character who develops a vision of who she is, against terrifically tough odds.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing May 22, 2012

By M. Rodriguez

Format:Hardcover

To date, this has to possibly be the hardest review I've had to type. The best books are not only those that transport you to a far, far away alternate universe. Although I love those books very much, every now and then I have to be reminded of the ones that keep you grounded enough to thank whatever entity you believe in that you haven't had to go through what others go through in this world. The best books will always remain, at least for me, those that make you FEEL, THINK and WONDER. Not only while you are reading but hours, days, months later. Great books embed themselves into your DNA.

This is that kind of book.

I signed up for Netgalley and this was the first book I requested and received. I saw the cover and title and had to read the description. I read the description and knew I would like this story. I read the story and walked away in love.

I cannot begin to describe how much I felt this book mine, knowing fully well that it couldn't be because I'm 34 and no I haven't had to live with a war right outside my front door. Yet I could still relate and many parts of this book could be my story.

Perhaps it's because some of my ancestors are from Africa. "For this moment, let's be free, I say to them. They could not know the dance of the journey I am just beginning, but they dance with me always."

Perhaps it's because when my mind wanders it too sways to the beat of drums and they too beat "Be Free".

Perhaps it's because I know what it's like to live in the United States and your elders desperately want to hold on to their history, culture and traditions while raising you in a very different world because "no one in America is from America" yet are.

This entire book is written in free verse, a poem if you will. It flows and you are instantly transported to Sudan where you meet Viola, her mother, brother and grandmother. You walk the streets as she does in constant fear until she escapes her town and then follow her to the United States as a refugee. This book was written by a WHITE woman, Terry Farish, who became a part of the Sudanese community in Maine in order to give Viola the most accurate/beautiful voice I have read to date. She did her research and did it incredibly well.

As I mentioned before a great book is one that will stay with you and it has been a month since I've read this book and stuck with me it has. As I also mentioned a great book will have you thinking and so this one has. One thought is this...

Not too long ago we were raving about The Hunger Games movie and the trilogy. We continue to rave about dystopian novels similar to The Hunger Games. What we fail to recognize is that there are people in present day living these dystopian novels only hours away.
Although Viola's story is "fictional" it is very much real and we should make sure our children know this.

With that said I'm gifting this book to every member in my family.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Unforgettable look at the life of a teenage refugee May 1, 2012

By Merin

Format:Hardcover

Viola is a teenager living in war-torn South Sudan with her grandmother, mother and younger brother, Francis. When the danger and desperation become too much to bear, they leave their small town of Juba and escape to Cairo, where they finally gain refugee status and come to the US, and the town of Portland, Maine. However, once in the US, Viola finds it difficult to keep her identity straight. The Good Braider tells the story of Viola's transition to a new life, and the struggles and sorrows that go hand-in-hand with that change.

This book was written in free verse, and I have to say that the short phrases, the emphasis on portions of the sentences, really worked well to convey Viola's voice and feelings. You get to see through her eyes as things become too much for her to bear in Sudan; you get to experience what it's like to be a refugee traveling to a camp, and then on a boat to Egypt, and a bus to Cairo. You get to see her and her mother's struggles to gain refugee status and be permitted to come to the US, and the differences in cultures and the ways they had to adapt and change. Viola was a very well-drawn character with such a unique voice and spirit; even when she's at her lowest, there was just something about her that didn't allow her to give up. She has very real flaws, mostly dealing with the fact that she had to leave her grandmother behind in Sudan, and also something traumatic that happened to her. She and her mother face so many difficulties, but both are wonderfully strong women who never give up.

I do want to warn that this book contains a rape scene; it's not graphic so much in terms of the way it's written about, but the words she uses when she's flashing back and thinking about it are quite descriptive and could trigger someone who experienced something similar. While the initial scene isn't long, it's referenced several times throughout the story, so I just want to give a heads-up if that's something that you might struggle with.

There were portions of this book that were so moving I was almost in tears; Viola's struggles to adjust to the US, to try to become more American, to try to get out from under the sometimes suffocating presence of the Sudanese community in Maine, were so well written that I was just completely empathetic to Viola's plight. Like most children of immigrants, she has an easier time of it than her mother, who wants to continue to raise Viola the Sudanese way, not realizing that what she could do in Sudan is not tolerated in the US in terms of punishment or even lifestyle. There was one particular section that was quite painful to read, but I don't want to expand on my thoughts in order to avoid spoilers. You'll know what I'm talking about if you read the book.

Throughout it all, you get to see pieces of the Sudanese culture, particularly when it comes to the way the women braid each other's hair. Viola learned from her mother to braid, but the journey from Juba to the US leaves her with a bit of a bitterness toward it, and she refuses to braid anyone's hair, least of all her own. As the book progresses you see her continued struggle with the idea of braiding, and you see her work out where she stands and how she feels, until it comes to its natural progression. The mentions of the braiding were particularly strong; it's such a part of her, but she's so traumatized - even if she doesn't know it - that she refuses to let her gift live inside her.

The Good Braider is an extremely powerful look at what it's like to journey from one life to another, and the challenges and hardships that leaving your life behind entails. There are some very disturbing parts to this book - I would rate it as upper YA - but the strength of Viola's character is so wonderful that I can't help but recommend it.

An e-galley was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking and powerful August 2, 2012

By Lieder Madchen

Format:Hardcover

I don't usually read books written in free verse, but in this case it suits. The stark writing style only accentuated the emotions and brutality of the story. This is one of those books that leaves you kind of breathless at the end, as if you have witnessed something terrible and something beautiful. There are so many awful things that happen in this book, but there is also so much hope.

I loved Viola, who is so strong despite the horrors she has lived through. Her courage was my favorite part of the book. America is so alien to her and her family, but she is determined to learn the new rules and excel in her new life. She manages it much better than her mother does, which leads to possible the most painful part of the novel.

This book is beautifully written and utterly engrossing. Bittersweet and sad, it is sometimes difficult to read, but I couldn't stop.

I received an advance e-copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.