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I’d never before read anything by Nancy Farmer (although as a former children’s bookseller, of course I knew about her) until I picked up A Girl Named Disaster to read as the first Tiger’s Choice. I was lucky to have found it–this book is an outstanding piece of fiction that can be read and enjoyed by a doddering fifty-nine-year-old like me or by people who are substantially younger.

In an earlier posting by Corinne on PaperTigers, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators in the Philippines pointed out that children’s literature from different cultures is shaped by differing values. This is made intriguingly clear by the story of Nhamo, the girl who leaves her tribe in search of her one living parent and a family that will be truly hers. Her quest is an adventure, and a solitary one, that takes her into a world populated only by animals. Unlike similar stories written with a differing cultural perspective (Julie of the Wolves, My Side of the Mountain, Island of the Blue Dolphins), this book does not show an anthropomorphic relationship between Nhamo and the baboons who are her neighbors. A lonely and frightened child, Nhamo forges a relationship with a world of the spirits rather than with the animal kingdom. She sustains herself through stories that she knows and loves about beings of an unseen realm, and in her dreams and in her waking imagination, these are the figures that guide her, and who allow her to bring out menacing, and hitherto unexplored, parts of herself by cloaking them under different names and the persona of spirits.

Her three-part story begins with elements of Cinderella, sweeps into a Robinson Crusoe-like world, and ends with a modern-day transformation and the fulfillment of a quest. At almost 300 pages, it is longer than many pieces of fiction for children, and it contains an impressive body of information within its compelling story. Anyone who reads it will be given a sense of place that only someone who has lived in that part of Africa could provide.

It could be a problematic choice to read aloud to a classroom of boys and girls. Although Nhamo’s adventures, and her adventuresome spirit, will appeal to both genders, the author’s frankness when writing about menstruation and other physical functions could be difficult in a mixed-gender classroom if read aloud. It is, however, a dazzling choice for a parent-child book group, or to give to a reluctant reader, or to enjoy as a solitary pleasure when in need of something absorbing and magical to read.

While reading A Girl Named Disaster, I found there were questions that I wanted to discuss with other readers and I hope some of you feel the same way. Your questions will probably be different from mine, and I’m eager to know what they are.

Nhamo is a storyteller and this book is punctuated with the folktales that she has learned and loves. Do these stories strengthen or weaken Nhamo’s own story?

Who is Long Teats and what does she mean to Nhamo?

Is Nhamo’s relationship to the baboons, especially Rumpy, disappointing? Would a different relationship be more appealing?

Nancy Farmer is noted for the length of her novels. Is this particular book well-served by its length or could it be more effective if it were shorter?

A Girl Named Disaster has three distinct segments of Nhamo’s story and some readers are disappointed with the third segment. Is the ending strong enough to provide a satisfying completion to the novel?

Let’s talk!

Alone on an island with a damaged boat, a rapidly dwindling supply of food, and with nothing to save her from death but her own wits, eleven-year-old Nhamo has never in her life been alone before.

She is a girl who grew up in a Mozambique village, who has always been surrounded by members of her tribe. She has never known her parents–her mother died when Nhamo was small, her father disappeared after committing an act of violence long before she could remember, and her grandmother is the only one who loves her.

When the village decides that Nhamo must become one of the wives of a middle-aged man to satisfy her father’s blood-debt that has cast a blight upon the community, her grandmother hatches an escape plan. Giving her granddaughter the gold that she has saved throughout her life, she sends the girl off with a supply of food in a stolen boat.

Nhamo knows she must follow the river that leads to Zambia and her father’s family, but her boat drifts off-course and she is lost in a gigantic lake, with no land in sight but small islands. Can she survive on her own and eventually find the family that she longs for.

This novel is the story of a quest that intertwines physical and spiritual adventure, written by a woman who lived for years in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It provides much to talk about–come to the Tiger’s Bookshelf next week for a few questions and the beginning of our first book group discussion.

“Kids can handle more plot, facts, and complexity than we give them credit for,” says literacy expert (and friend) Gina Biancarosa. Her studies at Harvard and Stanford indicate that what slows down young readers is not difficulty of story line but just the opposite: actions without consequences. Her favorite writers don’t dumb down for kids, and there are lots of mulitcultis on her list, including Nancy Farmer. “Many of Farmer’s works take place in Africa, but others take place in Mexico and other countries around the world. Some of her shorter works are my personal favorites: A Warm Place and Do You Know Me. But she’s great at epic length novels for hungry readers as well: Sea of Trolls, The House of the Scorpion, and A Girl Named Disaster (awesome title). I find them a bit long, but some kids just eat them up, à la Harry Potter.” More on Farmer and her books here. And more of Gina’s faves in posts to come.