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The Red Pencil
A novel-in-verse divided into two parts begins on “Our Farm, South Darfur, Africa, March 2003 — September 2004.” Amira is a smart, observant twelve-year-old who loves to express herself through art, often drawing in the sand. She has a younger sister, Leila, and loving parents who disagree about whether Amira should learn to read — her father thinks she should, her mother does not. The rich, warm details of Amira’s daily life unfold, and then her village is attacked by the Janjaweed — the government-supported militia. It is terrifying, and it is devastating: Her father and many others are killed. In Part 2, “Kalma, April 2004 — June 2004,” Amira, her mother and her little sister travel with her father’s best friend, Old Anwar, and her sister’s best friend, the now-orphaned Gamal, to the Kalma refugee camp. Amira cannot speak, mute after all she has been through. But when an aid worker gives her a red pencil she starts to draw. Her healing has begun. Old Anwar begins secretly teaching her to read, and Amira dreams of leaving the camp and going to Nyala, where there is a school for girls, but it will mean leaving the rest of her family behind. In a lengthy author’s note Andrea Davis Pinkney tells more about the Darfur conflict, and the research and interviews that informed and inspired this moving story. © Cooperative Children's Book Center
Illustrated by Shane W. Evans
CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 12 and older
Age Range:
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Formats:
Novel
Poetry
Subjects:
21st Century
Art and Artists
Education
Genocide
Girls and Women
Grief and Loss
Hope and Healing
Muslim People
Mutism
Novels in Verse
People of Darfur
Trauma
Violence
World History
Diversity subject:
Black/African
Physical Disability/Condition
Publisher:
Little, Brown
Publish Year: 2014
Pages: 308
ISBN: 9780316247801
CCBC Location: Fiction, Pinkney