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title: Saving Kabul Corner

author: N. H. Senzai

date: Simon and Schuster; 2014

main character: Ariana Shinwari

synopsis:

From Afghanistan to America, family matters most in this companion to Shooting Kabul, which Kirkus Reviews called “an ambitious story with much to offer.”

A rough and tumble tomboy, twelve-year-old Ariana couldn’t be more different from her cousin Laila, who just arrived from Afghanistan with her family. Laila is a proper, ladylike Afghan girl, one who can cook, sew, sing, and who is well versed in Pukhtun culture and manners. Arianna hates her. Laila not only invades Ariana’s bedroom in their cramped Fremont townhouse, but she also becomes close with Mariam Nurzai, Ariana’s best friend.

Then a rival Afghan grocery store opens near Ariana’s family store, reigniting a decades-old feud tracing back to Afghanistan. The cousins, Mariam, and their newfound frenemie, Waleed Ghilzai, must ban together to help the families find a lasting peace before it destroys both businesses and everything their parents have worked for. –Source

My take:

Saving Kabul Corner seems to develop quite independent of its companion novel Shooting Kabul, a book I have not yet read. This book had a compete story line and makes little reference to prior events. Particularly for a continuing storyline, the main characters were well developed.

This story revolves around Arianna’s dislike for her cousin, Laila, from Afghanistan who is staying with her. Something odd is going on in the neighborhood that could mean the end of the family’s local business. Arianna and Laila along with schoolmates Mariam and Waleed, work together to solve this mystery. The story begins with Arianna looking forward to a new home her father is having built. She describes strong desire for privacy and looks forward to getting her own room. Unfortunately, the new house is never again mentioned.

The Shinwari family is very much connected to events in their homeland, as are many first generation Americans. While I think Senzai did a skillful job of balancing the portrayal of events in Afghanistan with Arianna’s life in Los Angeles, I think there were at times too many historical details crammed into the novel. Senzai gives us Arriana, in a story drenched in Afghan history, laced with the language and decorated with the foods and a storyline that is as American as apple pie. Is she telling us that at the core, we are all very much the same?

Saving Kabul Corner is written for readers at the younger end of the YA spectrum.

Filed under: Book Reviews Tagged: Afghanistan, H. Senzai, middle grade fiction, N

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Nate Rocks The World is a Children's Action/Adventure for ages 9 -12.

Nathan Rockledge is your typical ten year old boy.  He feels his hair is too red, his freckles too many and his size too scrawny, however, put a pad of paper and a pencil in his hands and Nate could rule the world.

Nathan's older sister, Abby, is bossy and drives Nate crazy, his dad is always going on about when he was a boy and Nate's mom cannot cook anything that doesn't taste like cardboard and the thing is, his mom has no clue to her lack of culinary experience.

Things in Nate's real life don't always go as planned, like how he has to do his science fair project with a girl but not just ANY girl, but Lisa Crane, the only girl he did not wish to be matched up with!!  Nor does he get along very well with Abby and when they each get a package for Christmas that tells them they are about to embark on a trip, his sister whines and moans about not having anything to wear while Nate is thinking about all the exciting and endless possibilities this trip could incur. 

Whenever Nate needs a break from his reality, he picks up his trusty pencil and creates the situation in a positive way in which it usually works in Nate's favour, unlike his real life situations.

I found this to be a highly imaginative and creative story and enjoyed reading it.  I thought the imagination of Nate and how he related to the world around him was hilarious and entertaining.  I think this would make an excellent movie for children to view as I would love to see his imaginations come to life.

I enjoyed reading about each of the characters and how they interacted with Nate.  I loved the outcomes of most of his situations and how he accepted each curve ball thrown at him.  You will read how he hits a home run in the greatest baseball game in history to his travels in space, there is nothing found within the pages that will not impress your children to continue reading.

I would give Nate Rocks The World a five out of five stars for its imaginative creativity and how one could almost imagine it on the big screen, right down to which children could play the roles involved.  Author Karen Pokras Toz has written a great book that is guaranteed to keep your young reader enthralled right to the very end.


SYNOPSIS:
Ten-year-old Nathan Rockledge cannot catch a break. After all, life as a fourth-grader can be hazardous what with science projects to deal with and recess football games to avoid. Everyone, including his best friend Tommy, seems to have bad luck when hanging around Nathan. Throw in an older sister who is a royal pain, a dad who is stuck in the past, and a mom who keeps trying to poison him with her awful cooking, and poor Nathan’s life as a fourth grader appears to be completely doomed. Armed only with his sketchpad, his imagination, and his wits, Nathan Rockledge navigates the perils of the fourth grade in style, to emerge heroic, as Nate Rocks, proving that even a ten-year-old can accomplish great things. Follow the quirky and imaginative adventures of ten-year-old Nathan Rockledge as his cartoons come to life.