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254th out of 599 books
—
692 voters
Under the Persimmon Tree
Intertwined portraits ofcourage and hope in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Najmah, a young Afghan girl whose name means “star,” suddenly finds herself alone when her father and older brother are conscripted by the Taliban and her mother and newborn brother are killed in an air raid. An American woman, Elaine, whose Islamic name is Nusrat, is also on her own. She waits out the war...more
Najmah, a young Afghan girl whose name means “star,” suddenly finds herself alone when her father and older brother are conscripted by the Taliban and her mother and newborn brother are killed in an air raid. An American woman, Elaine, whose Islamic name is Nusrat, is also on her own. She waits out the war...more
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published
August 8th 2005
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
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This book starts out telling two separate stories, one of a woman, the other of a girl, both living in the Middle East during Taliban seizure. Najmah, is the young daughter of a shepherd family living in a Northern Afghanistan village called Golestan. Soldiers take Najmah’s father and brother, leaving her, her mother, and baby brother. Later, bombs take the lives of Najmah’s mother and baby brother and destroy their family home. Najmah heads to Pakistan in search for her father and brother. Nusr...more
Under the Persimmon Tree is a story of hardships, hope, family and strength. The book is about a young Afghan girl, named Najmah and her journey of living through the Afghan war of 2001. The young girl lives with her mother, father, and brother. After a Taliban raid, her father and brother are taken captive, and later after a bombing, she is left alone, hungry, and forced to fend for herself. Here the idea of support and community comes into play, and Najmah finds a group of villagers who help h...more
I read this book for a multicultural unit in class, and found it to be enjoyable to read because of the the facts of the culture, but the story itself was a little bit depressing and seemed to have an ending that didn't finish many questions. It wasn't exactly a cliffhanger ending, but it left me wondering what the characters would decide. It is set in Afghan, during the war with the Taliban. There are two main characters: a young girl whose father and brother are taken away to fight for the Tal...more
Finely drawn plot and setting, but the novel is almost completely character driven. The two women the book follows are an American Muslim married to an Afghani doctor who is working in a rural clinic while she stays in Peshawar with her family, and a teenage girl in a rural farming area who is the only one left after her brother and father are forcibly conscripted by the Taliban and her mother and baby brother are killed in a bombing. The story takes place in the weeks surrounding the destructio...more
The Afghan war of 2001 was a vivid reminder of the brutality, anger and hatred the division of a country can produce. Under the Persimmon Tree brings this experience to life through the perspective of Najmah, an Afghan girl and Elaine an American woman waiting in Pakistan.
Najmah, lives with her father, mother and older brother in a remote village. They have little in worldly possessions, but there is a deep bond between them. When the fearful, abusive and controlling Taliban appear food is alway...more
Najmah, lives with her father, mother and older brother in a remote village. They have little in worldly possessions, but there is a deep bond between them. When the fearful, abusive and controlling Taliban appear food is alway...more
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I really enjoyed the way the book intertwined the stories of Najmah and Nusrat. Sometimes I would be annoyed when a Najmah chapter ended because I wanted to see what was going to happen to her, but that just made me want to keep reading more so I could get back to her story sooner! Seeing the story's events from the alternating perspectives of a child and an adult really deepened the emotional impact. I definitely teared up at several different moments in the story.
Civilian life during the war...more
Civilian life during the war...more
A story about two women, one who is growing up in war-torn Afghanistan and the other is an American-born woman who moves to The Middle East to help her husband set up a clinic. Nursat, the American woman, starts a school, and she feels it is her duty to educate the children of Pershawar. Najmah looses her family to the Taliban and American-dropped bombs. She decides that she must find her brother Nur, and go back to her fathers farm and stay there. She travels to Pershawar, and falls into the ca...more
Under the Persimmon Tree is about Najmah, a girl of about eleven, who watches the Talaban kidnap her father and brother, and later her mother and baby brother are killed in an air raid. At the same time, the story of Nusrat, (originally named Elaine) who is a blonde white girl from New York, who met and married Faiz, a doctor from Afghanistan. Faiz hearing about the war in Afghanistan feels he must return home and help his people. Nusrat returns with him and teaches school at a refugee camp in P...more
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The idea and plot of the book were fascinating. It taught me a lot about the war in Afghanistan from the natives' point of view. I couldn't help but be sympathetic to the troubles of Nusrat and Najmah.
My only complaints are probably because this book is a more basic than I'm used to. The author habitually explained things that really didn't need to be explained. She also forced the readers to accept her ending. She didn't explain it (and I won't spoil it), but she just ends it with one half-done...more
My only complaints are probably because this book is a more basic than I'm used to. The author habitually explained things that really didn't need to be explained. She also forced the readers to accept her ending. She didn't explain it (and I won't spoil it), but she just ends it with one half-done...more
This novel tells the story of a young girl and a married woman living in Afghanistan after the September 11th. The young girl, Najmah, lives with her family in a remote village. Nusrat is a young American woman who converts to Islam and moves from New York to Afghanistan to live with her husband, a doctor. Both of their lives are disrupted after the events of September 11th. Najmah must cope with her father and brother being taken away to fight by the Taliban. Nusrat is separated from her husban...more
Three and 3/4 stars. A good book with content not often seen in middle school or YA fiction....it's a story that takes place in October 2001 after the US goes to war with Afghanistan. The story is two-fold; it's about an American-turned-Muslim convert living in Pakistan waiting for word of her husband, who recently went to Afghanistan to build a health clinic and a young girl who watches her father and brother forced off to war by the Taliban. Soon after she witnesses her mother and newborn brot...more
This was a beautiful book! I loved the story and the characters. I loved learning (again) about this middle-eastern culture that is so fascinating to me. The story line of this book is different than the Shabanu series that I just finished reading, but it kept the same beautiful, complex, and magical description of culture that I really loved in her other books.
The two main characters, Najmah and Nusrat, are very different from each other, and I loved how the author wove their two stories togeth...more
The two main characters, Najmah and Nusrat, are very different from each other, and I loved how the author wove their two stories togeth...more
This book is the story of two women who meet in Peshawar, Pakistan in 2001. Najmah is a girl who travels to Peshwar to find her father and brother taken to fight with the Taliban after her mother and brother are killed in an air raid. Nusrat is an American who married an Afghan doctor, now missing. While those stories alone would make a good read, I enjoyed even more the journey Nusrat took to discovering Islam and then an even larger view of faith and reconciling science and faith.
"Islam showed...more
"Islam showed...more
This story is sad, and wonderful. And the underlying historical message of Afghan conflict is powerful. Najmah is a young girl who must watch as a combination of Taliban warriors and US-led bombing raids destroy her village and family. Elaine, Nusrat, converts to Islam and devotes her life to the cause of Afghan refugee children. Together they form the core of faith and perseverance that drives the story.
But the story and the message don’t always mesh very well. It’s as if Staples has to take a...more
But the story and the message don’t always mesh very well. It’s as if Staples has to take a...more
I read this for book club for next month. I was a little concerned when I realized it took place in Afghanistan/Pakistan after 9/11. Was I up for that? Although the atrocities of war are ever present, as a book for young readers, it was still somehow gentle. I would say the emphasis was on the emotional struggle of war and terrorism. We are spared the details of brutality although the struggle to survive is presented on every page. It was a good book. There was not a fairy tale ending. Despite t...more
This book is SO great. I recommend it for the ages 11-adult. This book is sad but is very happy too. It is about a girl named Najmah who is living in Afghanistan around 9/11 and her life when the Taliban are still dictating and there is still war. There is another lady named Nusrat who is from New York, her husband is a doctor and he opened a clinic to help injured soldiers and people from the war. Nusrat lived in Peshawar, Pakistan. Something happens to both Nusrat and Najmah that makes a big t...more
Takes place in Afghanistan/Pakistan and deals with the Taliban and civil war. The book has two stories that intertwine. One story is about a native girl, who is more or less an orphan when her brother and father are recruited into the Taliban against their will, while her mother is killed by an air raid. Then across the border there is an American teacher who has a missing Afghani husband and is waiting for his return. The two characters meet and are drawn to each other during the chaos. Great b...more
A captivating story about life in Afghanistan after September 11. The narrative alternates between Najmah, a young girl from a small village in who is trying to find her father and brother after they were taken away by the Taliban, and Nusrat, an American woman who converted to Islam and moved to Peshawar with her Afghani doctor husband. This is a fantastic way to put the current situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan in a cultural context for middle school students. I particularly loved the way...more
This book by Suzanne Fisher Staples is set in the mountains of northern Afghanistan after 9/11. The Taliban kidnaps Najmah's father and older brother. Her mom and little brother die in an American air raid. She stops speaking and disguises herself as a boy in order to journey to a refugee camp in Pakistan.
Nusrat (an American convert) set up a school for the refugees. She has not heard from her husband since he left.
The two meet up at the camp and wait for news about the people they love.
A map,...more
Nusrat (an American convert) set up a school for the refugees. She has not heard from her husband since he left.
The two meet up at the camp and wait for news about the people they love.
A map,...more
This is the Afghanistan leg of my tour around the world and so glad i didn't miss this part as I really enjoyed this book. It shows the other side of the stories who hear on the news.
It begins with two stories: one a girl, Najmah, who lives in the mountains in Afghanistan who helps her shepherd father tend the animals etc. But her easy existence is shattered when the Taliban arrive and take away her father and brother and all the food they have stored. She then looks after her heavily pregnant m...more
It begins with two stories: one a girl, Najmah, who lives in the mountains in Afghanistan who helps her shepherd father tend the animals etc. But her easy existence is shattered when the Taliban arrive and take away her father and brother and all the food they have stored. She then looks after her heavily pregnant m...more
I loved Staples book Shabanu, but was disappointed in this one. It is set in Afghanistan and Pakistan during 2001 - 2002 (?) and is the story of a a girl and a young woman. The woman converts to Islam, marries an Afghan doctor and moves to Peshawar where she runs a refugee school and he goes off to run a clinic in northern Afghanistan. The girl lives in rural Afghanistan and her family is killed/conscripted and she ends up at the school in Peshawar.
So much of this story is unlikely and feels ar...more
So much of this story is unlikely and feels ar...more
Under the Persimmon Tree is and adventure book by Suzanne Fisher Staples. It is about a girl named Najmah who is a young Afghan girl. Her name means “star,”. After her father and older brother are conscripted by the Taliban and her mother and newborn brother are killed in an air raid she finds herself alone and she goes to Pakistan. Elaine, whose Islamic name is Nusrat is also on her own. Her husband went to Mazar to help the men and women engird from the air strikes. The two main charters lead...more
This was an excellent book! One of those books that I think everyone should read. A book that should be on every school's "reading list."
The book takes place roughly 2001-2002 in Afghanistan and Pakistan following two people: one a shepherd girl from a fictional North Afghanistan village and the other the American wife of an Afghan doctor who is living near a refugee camp for Afghans in Pakistan while her husband works at a clinic in war torn Northern Afghanistan. A series of probable events br...more
The book takes place roughly 2001-2002 in Afghanistan and Pakistan following two people: one a shepherd girl from a fictional North Afghanistan village and the other the American wife of an Afghan doctor who is living near a refugee camp for Afghans in Pakistan while her husband works at a clinic in war torn Northern Afghanistan. A series of probable events br...more
Nusrat, an American woman married to an Afghan doctor, and Najmah, a young Afghani girl, share a common destiny in this novel. The stories of these two are told in alternating chapters giving the reader an understanding of the events taking place in Afghanistan after the Taliban have taken over.
Nusrat has moved to Peshawar, Pakistan with her husband from New York. He wants to join his family there and help in the humanitarian relief effort while Nusrat takes in orphans. As the story progresses,...more
Nusrat has moved to Peshawar, Pakistan with her husband from New York. He wants to join his family there and help in the humanitarian relief effort while Nusrat takes in orphans. As the story progresses,...more
Not bad, but stories like this one set in war torn Afghanistan are becoming more common than they used to be. It's hard not to become a little desensitised to characters and storylines that follow a similar vein to those that I've read before (eg. The orphaned child, the American woman Muslim convert). Having said that, this novel is aimed at young adult readers and as such it would probably be quite an eye-opening read for those who haven't had exposure to this sort of subject matter before.
This was a very sad but educational book about Afghanistan under the Taliban. Our two main characters are female--one born and raised in Afghanistan and one born and raised in New York who chooses to become Muslim. First, the book tracks both females individually. Eventually, their paths cross and they learn from one another. We learn about the violence, the fear, the oppression. At the end of the book, we are introduced to a measure of hope. Good YA title.
While the topic of the story is timely, switching characters between chapters early on in the book was confusing and hard to get into. I also thought the story ended abruptly. So, this isn't my favorite book by Fisher Staples.
However, the story of Afghani refugees in Pakistan around 2001 links to several other books I have read and enjoyed such as Refugees, Stones into Schools: Young Readers Edition, and The Breadwinner Collection. #bookaday
However, the story of Afghani refugees in Pakistan around 2001 links to several other books I have read and enjoyed such as Refugees, Stones into Schools: Young Readers Edition, and The Breadwinner Collection. #bookaday
I thought this was book was interestingly written. I'm not a big fan of the style, but it did put a different sort of perspective into it.Throughout the entire book, there was a consistent theme which was to stick up for friends and family no matter what. The two protagonists had slightly different views on the world, but the same views on treating people. The first, named Najmah, was a shepherd girl in a small village in Afghanistan. She saw the world as a community, and was taught not to disre...more
An Afghan girl survives the bombing of her village when she is in the hills caring for the family's goats. she sees her mother and baby brother dies. her father and 14 year old brother are conscripted by the Taliban. She treks across Afghanistan, almost starving, to barely survive in a refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan.
A very inspiring character, as well as the American woman who runs a school and befriends her.
A very inspiring character, as well as the American woman who runs a school and befriends her.
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Suzanne Fisher Staples is the author of six books addressed to children and adolescents. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (U.S.A.), she grew up in a small community around Northwestern Pennsylvania. She had three siblings, a sister and two brothers. Suzanne went to Lakeland High School in Scott Township, Pennsylvania. Later, she graduated from Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She...more
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Nov 19, 2011 12:43pm