Wanting Mor

Mar 09, 2010 Sandy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-realistic-fiction, middle-eastern

A sad story about a young girl growing in Afghanistan after the wars and during American occupation of that country. It is very sad.

I read this book at the same time that I read Esperanza Rising. Both stories touched me and both had a strong female as the main character, though Jameela in Wanting Mor seemed a little stronger mostly because of the ending of the story. I would like to hope that reading these kinds of books would help girls to know that they are stronger than they think and that li...more

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May 04, 2010 Meaghan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrens-young-adult-fiction, read-in-2010

I don't believe there are many books about Afghanistan for children, and this one manages to be 9-to-12 appropriate while at the same time showing the incredible difficulties of life (especially as a female) in that most unfortunate of nations. Probably the author's background as a Muslim (albeit a Pakistani one) contributed to the authenticity of the narrative.

That said, it was kind of predictable, most of the characters were two-dimensional, and (without trying to spoil the book) it had a sort...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Canadian Children's Book Centre added it

Shelves: books-news-reviews

Jameela keenly misses her beloved dead mother (Mor). Mor’s teaching had encouraged her on the path to becoming a gracious Muslim woman. However, Afghanistan life after the American invasion of 2001 is treacherous for vulnerable youth. Jameela’s father, ruined by drugs, alcohol and other Western- or war-spawned problems, cannot guide her. He moves them to the city, but at his new wife’s urging he abandons his daughter at the market and Jameela ends up in an orphanage. Readers track Jameela’s jour...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Sally Staples rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: chapter-book

What a title!! I think the title says it all about this book. I felt so bad for Jameela at such a young age to lose her mother and then for her father to be the way he was. The story was very descriptive especially when she described her mother's death and how they prepared and cleaned the body. You get a clear picture of her father and how he would smoke opium, drink and not look out for his own daughter. I felt so bad for her when her father would not even let her bring some of her mother's it...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Sarah Doyle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Jameela is a young Muslim girl who lives in Afghanistan. Her live is filled with conflict when her mother dies and her father remarries, only to abandon her, leaving her to live in an orphanage. However, dealing with the loss of her family and a cleft lip, Jameela remembers the words her mother, Mor, always told her, “If you can’t be beautiful you should at least be good.” The book explores the hardships that Jameela faces where she learns that she is more than her outside imperfections and with...more

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Feb 16, 2012 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s-lit-class-books

The story starts off sad, with Jameela (the main protagonist) losing her mother. She lives in post-Taliban Afghanistan with her father. Straight from the beginning you can connect with her. Yes, she has a cleft lip and is very religious, but she is also a young girl who just lost her mother, is fearful of her father, and is being dragged around just trying to find her place. It hits on some great issues that could be used to open up new conversations about far away people and places, and it also...more

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Nov 30, 2011 Kara Roberts rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: chapter-book, culture, death, family, fitting-in, heart-felt, historical, historical-fiction, love, problem-solving, progress, relationships, rules, safety, september-11th, afghanistan, war

Jameela and her family live in a poor, war-torn village in Afghanistan. Even with her cleft lip and lack of educational opportunities, Jameela feels relatively secure, sustained by her Muslim faith and the love of her mother, Mor. But when Mor dies, Jameela’s father impulsively decides to start a new life in Kabul. Jameela is appalled as he succumbs to alcohol and drugs, then suddenly remarries, a situation that soon has her a virtual slave to a demanding stepmother. After she’s discovered tryin...more

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Feb 28, 2011 Katy Vance rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: diversity, religion, middlegrades, young-adult, 2011

Overall, I liked this book. It is reminds me of a Thousand Splendid Suns but for a younger audience. I appreciated that the author took the time at the end of the book to explain the background for her story, which stemmed from a "report issued by Afghanistan's department of orphanages". Additionally, she acknowledged the women who helped her vet the story for accuracy and cultural authenticity, who are from Kabul and Khandahar. There is an excellent glossary at the end, which I wish I ahd thoug...more Overall, I liked this book. It is reminds me of a Thousand Splendid Suns but for a younger audience. I appreciated that the author took the time at the end of the book to explain the background for her story, which stemmed from a "report issued by Afghanistan's department of orphanages". Additionally, she acknowledged the women who helped her vet the story for accuracy and cultural authenticity, who are from Kabul and Khandahar. There is an excellent glossary at the end, which I wish I ahd thought to look for early on.

This book also strikes me as enabling text in accordance with Dr. Alfred Tatum's work. While it is not a book tailored towards lives of African American teenage males, his population of interest, this story is an excellent example of a book which shows a marginalized main character in the midst of a seemingly hopeless situation able to pull through as the result of self-reliance, dogged perseverance, good decision making and education.

The main character Jameela is not without fault and is not always completely likeable, which endeared me to her all the more. I believe she is a character with whom American children could connect because while she is living a life completely different from the experiences of most American children, she deals with loss, love, and difficult friendships, common human experiences. For example, upon arriving in the orphanage, she struggles with the power structure which exists in the friendships amongst the other orphans. While she eventually earns her place among the other orphans through her actions, she is not perfect. Some books would make her automatically the nicest girl who is kind to everyone, but Jameela is actually still unkind to a young orphan girl named Arwa. I found this to be a more realistic portrayal of adolescent relationships.

This book is heavy, touching on drug abuse, war, adult drinking, religion, personal identity and more. None of it is glorified, and I believe for an interested upper middle school age student or lower high school student, this would be an excellent selection. I also see it working as part of a reading ladder related to either contemporary Afghanistan, Muslim related fiction, or women around the world. Since it is such a thick text with many layers for discussion, I also see its potential for a literature circle book.

***Added***

After some additional thought, another thing I like about this book is how it dealt with femininity in the Arab world. Sometimes when I read books about cultures different than my own, I feel that authors (particularly American authors writing about global cultures) are treating these cultures and communities with respect until there is something about that culture which offends or displeases them. I enjoyed the passages where Jameela discussed her wearing of the Chadri (or Burka) because the author treated the issue with a deep respect for the character's culture, rather than treating it as a negative or backward characteristic of a culture which is in need of remedy. Of course, as Ms. Khan is Pakistani (not Afghan as is her main character), her cultural background may have made it easier for her to portray this cultural component with this sort of deep respect rather than respect "to a point". I am not an expert on books with Muslim themes, but my limited experience as well as my knowledge related to multicultural and global literature made me feel that Ms. Khan did an excellent job of writing clearly about an issue which can spark heated conversations in the Western World.
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Feb 22, 2011 Gabrielle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-eastern-literature

Wanting Mor, a novel by Rukhsana Khan, tells the story of Jameela, a young Afghan girl whose mother dies in the beginning of the book. After that, her life becomes a series of tragedies and mishaps, and yet Jameela's goodness and honesty make this story ultimately a happy one.

After her mother dies, Jameela's father takes them from their small rural village to Kabul. He marries a woman who doesn't like Jameela, so he takes Jameela to the market and abandons her there. It's a heartbreaking part of...more Wanting Mor, a novel by Rukhsana Khan, tells the story of Jameela, a young Afghan girl whose mother dies in the beginning of the book. After that, her life becomes a series of tragedies and mishaps, and yet Jameela's goodness and honesty make this story ultimately a happy one.

After her mother dies, Jameela's father takes them from their small rural village to Kabul. He marries a woman who doesn't like Jameela, so he takes Jameela to the market and abandons her there. It's a heartbreaking part of the story when she is left alone, waiting for her father to return. He never does. She is then taken in by a nice man who already has four children, so he can't keep her and she ends up at a local orphanage. Here her life improves. She makes a few friends, learns to read, and has her cleft lip repaired by an American army doctor. In a strange twist of fate, Jameela's friend Soraya ends up marrying Jameela's stepbrother, so Jameela finally has the chance to confront her father. She decides to stay at the orphanage instead of go back to live with her deadbeat father. The orphanage is her home, and she even becomes a teacher of the smaller children there. By the end of the story, Jameela is happily settled into life at the orphanage with a newfound sense of confidence.

There were many things I loved about this book, but I especially loved how the author tackles really serious issues with honesty. Jameela's father, for example, uses opium and drinks alcohol, and this is not sugarcoated at all. Also, Jameela is a tragic character in many ways, but she's also a real adolescent. She herself is the victim of ridicule because of her lip, yet she makes fun of another younger girl because she smells and is dirty. Jameela is not a martyr the way some tragic young characters can be. The author is also very direct in her portrayal of Muslim men, particularly Jameela's father, and how controlling they can be of women and girls. There is some anti-American sentiment in the book, but this is an accurate depiction of how many Afghan citizens might feel about the American military.

This book is very authentic in its portrayal of the ways that religion and gender roles are so important in Muslim culture. The author is from Pakistan, and the book seems very much like an insiders view of life in a Muslim country. Religion is very important to Jameela, and there are translations in the back of the book of the various arabic phrases she uses throughout the story.
I also thought the fact that Jameela had a cleft lip was very interesting. My father is a pediatric surgeon and has spent many years performing surgeries in poor countries where children have never had their cleft lips fixed. This can be devastating for children, especially girls whose "marriageability" is very important for ensuring a good quality of life. My dad often operated on girls as old as 13 or 14 who had never had their cleft lips repaired, so that part of Jameela's story really resonated with me.

Wanting Mor is a great book with lots of rich, interesting cultural issues. It provides an insider perspective on Afghanistan and the issues facing young women post-Taliban. I would recommend this book for students grades 7-10. Some of the issues such as drug abuse and parental abandonment are a bit heavy for younger students.
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Feb 20, 2011 Marija rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-eastern-literature-rll528

This was one of the most heart-wrenching books I have read this year. The story centers around Jameela, a young Afghani girl who loses her mother Mor. Her father has many of his own personal issues and decides to uproot Jameela from their home and head off to Kabul, seeking a better life. Once in Kabul, the pair move around from place to place, and when her father re-marries, Jameela finds herself abandoned in the middle of this strange city. She ends up in an orphanage where she has to fall bac...more

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Aug 01, 2010 Erin Reilly-Sanders rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: teen, fiction, foreign

I picked up this one in order to experience some of Rukhsana Khans's writing, as I was working on an author profile of her. Starting with Muslim Child: Understanding Islam Through Stories, I got a good idea of her faith which is one of the most striking aspects of her writing. Wanting Mor stays true to this by informing readers, who are likely to be from Canada or the United States and unfamiliar with Islam, of the tenets of this Middle Eastern faith. This story for young teens is less obviously...more

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May 10, 2009 Deanna rated it 2 of 5 stars

Realistic fiction, family/friendship, survival, identity, learning to read. This book reminds me of the novels: The breadwinner and The story of my life: Afgan under the sky because it takes place in Afghanistan after 2001. In the opening chapter Jameela's mother passes away and the next day her father sells their mud home and all of their belongings and moves them to Kabul. Jamella becomes a house maid for a while and then her father decides to marry a woman so that they may have a better life....more

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Jun 01, 2010 Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-fiction, friendship, orphans, afghanistan, multicultural

Based on a true story, Wanting Mor, is the account of a young Afghani girl left motherless by her mother's untimely death. Jameela was extremely close to her mother and it seems as if her father doesn't quite know what to do with her or how to relate to her. She struggles to 'be good' and work hard to please the various Khalaas (aunties) her father sends her to. When her father decides to marry a vicious, unloving widow, Jameela tries even harder to please. Yet, her father listens to this harden...more

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Mar 13, 2010 Abbie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: realistic-fiction, children-s, family, youngadult, religion, library-science

Summary: When Jameela’s Mor (mother) dies, she is left alone with her father, an impulsive and frightening man who does not share the same devotion to his faith that Jameela does. Shortly after her mother’s death, Baba moves them to Kabul where he eventually marries a cruel woman who forces Baba to abandon Jameela on an unfamiliar street. She ends up in an orphanage where she overcomes some of her meekness and timidity before she finally comes into contact with her father and stepmother again, a...more

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Feb 21, 2011 Julia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-eastern

Wanting Mor is the story of Jameela, a young Afghani girl. When her mother dies after a short illness, Jameela’s father decides to pack up and leave their home for Kabul selling all their belongings. Is doesn’t take long for Jameela’s Baba to remarry. Jameela becomes a virtual slave to her stepmother, cooking and cleaning and sleeping on the floor. She knows that her Mor would want her to be good so she never complains about the hard work that she has to endure. Her father spends much of the tim...more

Wanting Mor is the story of Jameela, a young Afghani girl. When her mother dies after a short illness, Jameela’s father decides to pack up and leave their home for Kabul selling all their belongings. Is doesn’t take long for Jameela’s Baba to remarry. Jameela becomes a virtual slave to her stepmother, cooking and cleaning and sleeping on the floor. She knows that her Mor would want her to be good so she never complains about the hard work that she has to endure. Her father spends much of the time smoking opium and drinking alcohol. He cannot stand up to his wife who does not want Jameela in her house. Baba takes Jameela to the marketplace and abandons her. It is through the kindness of one man, Agha Akram, that Jameela is brought to an orphanage where she is taught to read and write and make friends. It is at the orphanage that Jameela finally feels like she belongs.

When Jameela arrives at the orphanage she is befriend by an older girl Soraya, She is given an opportunity to go to school but must be put in a class with the young girls because she has never learned to read or write. A fast learner, Jameela is soon helping to teach the younger girls. She is offered a chance to have an operation to repair a cleft palette that she was born with. It is with this opportunity that Jameela becomes a strong and independent young woman. Although covered by her Chadri, Jameela knows that she no longer has to cover her disability. Her ability to read and write have made her strong and will lead her to her independence as she will be able to become a teacher in the future. Jameela finds the strength to confront her father when he comes to reclaim her at the end of the novel. Jameela sees her father for who he truly is, a drug addicted man whose only interest in his daughter is her ability to make money for him.

Wanting Mor is set in war-torn Afghanistan after the Taliban have left and American soldiers have occupied the city of Kabul. The director of the orphanage, Khalaa Gul, is always looking for American benefactors to give them money. She turns to the military for help in keeping up the orphanage. When Jameela is offered the chance to have her cleft palette fixed by an American doctor, the girls tell her not to trust the soldiers. “They kill for a living.” (p.112). Soraya feels that they, as Afghans, need to have some dignity. “ I hate how we go begging to these foreigners for every little thing.” (p.112). It is interesting to see the anti-American feelings that the characters have. Jameela is offended by the “westernization” that is taking place in Kabul. She is more comfortable wearing her Chadri and is disgusted by women who wear tight-fitting clothes and dance with men. She sees the children in the orphanage getting western ideas as well. They do not take praying seriously. They do not have the kind of faith that Jameela has. It is her Muslim faith that sustains her.

Wanting Mor is a novel for students in 5th through 8th grades. There are many themes that are discussed throughout the book. There are issues of abandonment; Baba leaving his daughter at the marketplace and Mor dying, poverty; Baba remarries because he has no money or job, and the effects of war on civilians, especially children. The issue of drug addiction can be discussed with older students. Students can question whether Baba abandoned his daughter because of drugs. The importance of education is prevalent through out the book. It is because of her education that Jameela is able to become independent. Wanting Mor is a powerful and moving story, sure to be enjoyed by all who read it.
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Apr 08, 2010 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars

"If you can't be beautiful you should at least be good. People will appreciate that."

The protagonist Jameela embodies goodness. It is hard not to fall in love with her. She is patient, long suffering and sweet. Her attempts at being "good" when faced with impossible life situations left me wanting to rescue her from all the horrors dealt her throughout the story. Yet, I was left worried about the ultimate message this story sends the reader.

It's not that I am against "goodness" per se. But, ho...more "If you can't be beautiful you should at least be good. People will appreciate that."

The protagonist Jameela embodies goodness. It is hard not to fall in love with her. She is patient, long suffering and sweet. Her attempts at being "good" when faced with impossible life situations left me wanting to rescue her from all the horrors dealt her throughout the story. Yet, I was left worried about the ultimate message this story sends the reader.

It's not that I am against "goodness" per se. But, how often are women sold these as their only two options in life (beauty & goodness)? Every time Jameela experiences another blow she tells her self, "Don't get angry. Don't get angry. Don't get angry." In the end, she devotes herself to being "good" through unquestioning obedience, working hard and piety. Once again, all great characteristics to embody. But, it appears that these characteristics are what in turn save her rather than her tenacity, intelligence and resilience.

Each time Jameela re-devotes herself to being good, a door of opportunity is opened. I fear this is the wrong message to send. While it is good to hold on to the traits Jameela demonstrates, rarely do these traits alone solve problems. While Jameela eventually gets to a place where she pushes back, it wasn't satisfying to me. It just felt too clean. I would have appreciated it if the author used the character to demonstrate some of the emotional problems associated with the travesties she faces. The protagonist ends up a romantic view of the good woman who survives difficulty. In my classroom with refugees, I witness first hand the long term, devastating effects of war, poverty and displacement have on a person. It is not as clean and romantic as the book would have the reader see.

It is our intolerance, anger and indignation that moves people to challenge institutions that perpetuate suffering. It is the act of "acting out" that creates important change. Where would we be if we all quietly went along with our suffering? We cannot "good" our way out of slavery, racial segregation, domestic abuse and other such social/personal problems. Learning how to push back, question, and demand are as equally important as being good and beautiful, if not more so.

A neatly written story. However, I would want a parent to read this story with their child to discuss some of the deeper implications of Jameela's character. I would not want a child to leave this story believing that the answer to injustice, pain and loss is "goodness".
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Apr 04, 2012 Julie Graham 47150 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: discrimination, chapter-books, overcoming-adversity

The main character, Jameela, is a young Muslim girl living in Afghanistan. After her mother dies, Jameela's father sells all of their belongings and takes her to live with him in the city of Kabul (very different from living in the countryside where she has grown up). When Jameela's father remarries, he dumps her in the middle of Kabul and she ends up living in an orphanage. In dealing with the loss of her mother, being abandoned by her father, and the feelings associated with having a cleft lip...more

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Feb 25, 2011 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-eastern

Published: Groundwood Books, 2010
Age: 10 and up
Jameela is a young Afghani girl living during the Taliban and the American invasion with her mother and father. Her mother, whom she is very close to and gives her some security during this difficult time, suddenly dies. She lives in poverty, has no education and is born with a birth defect that left her with a cleft palette. Her father takes her to Kabul and does not care for her. He is a drunk and drug addicted and marries a woman for her home. Th...more Published: Groundwood Books, 2010
Age: 10 and up
Jameela is a young Afghani girl living during the Taliban and the American invasion with her mother and father. Her mother, whom she is very close to and gives her some security during this difficult time, suddenly dies. She lives in poverty, has no education and is born with a birth defect that left her with a cleft palette. Her father takes her to Kabul and does not care for her. He is a drunk and drug addicted and marries a woman for her home. The woman hates Jameela and treats her like a slave. When her son starts paying attention to Jameela, she tells her husband to abandon her in the Kabul market. Jameela is so trusting, she won’t even sit down because her father might not see her. A kind butcher takes Jameela to his home but cannot keep her so he brings her to an orphanage. Surprisingly, the orphanage turns out to be the best thing to happen to her. She gets educated and receives surgery to fix her cleft lip. Jameela’s strong Muslim faith and the memories of her mother give her strength through the terrifying events that happen to her.
Amazingly, this is based on a true story. It is unimaginable to think of a child having to go through the horrible ordeal of being abandoned in a busy marketplace by her own father. This is a portrayal of real life war torn conditions in Afghanistan after the American invasion. Most of Jameela’s relatives were killed so she had no one but her father. It also shows the way women are devalued. They couldn’t go to school and economic conditions led people to do desperate things. Western influence is seen throughout the book, but many people, like the girls in the orphanage didn’t trust Americans. Jameela never gets mad or bitter and I was cheering that she faced her father and stepmother in the end and realized their wickedness. The Pushto words mixed in the text are explained in a glossary in back and add authenticity to the story. The bright side were the good people who helped Jameela, such as the butcher and his family who took her in temporarily, the orphanage people who sought to fix her cleft lip, (although they had an agenda), and the Americans who performed the surgery. A lot of serious issues are found in the book, such as drug addiction, alcoholism, abandonment, poverty, orphanages, war, birth defects, banter, religion and faith, illiteracy, and the treatment of women in some countries.
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Jul 25, 2010 Casey Strauss rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-eastern

Jameela, a young Afghani girl, lives in a poor village with her mother and father. The rest of Jameela’s family has perished in a bombing at a family wedding. Jameela’s father is left broken and angry from this event; he withdraws from his wife and daughter to deal with his grief. Jameela then relies on her mother as her support system, going to her for advice and companionship. When Jameela’s mother suddenly dies, her world, as she knows it ends. Further emotionally devastated, her father turns...more Jameela, a young Afghani girl, lives in a poor village with her mother and father. The rest of Jameela’s family has perished in a bombing at a family wedding. Jameela’s father is left broken and angry from this event; he withdraws from his wife and daughter to deal with his grief. Jameela then relies on her mother as her support system, going to her for advice and companionship. When Jameela’s mother suddenly dies, her world, as she knows it ends. Further emotionally devastated, her father turns to alcohol and drugs in response to his wife’s death. Much to Jameela surprise, her father then moves with her to the larger city of Kabul where he marries a wealthy widow. Jameela is then forced to accept a new mother into her life, when she is still mourning the death of her Mor (Pushto word for mother). Her father’s new wife is threatened by Jameela’s presence, especially after seeing the young girl attempt to learn to read. Her stepmother then persuades her father to abandon Jameela in a busy market place to fend for herself. Jameela eventually settles in an orphanage run by the army. Throughout the story, she draws upon the memories of her Mor, giving her the strength and perseverance she needs to survive.

Jameela’s story is fictional, but based on a true incident that Rukhsana Khan came across while reading a report on children in crisis that was issued by Afghanistan’s department of orphanages. She was so moved by the story that she was inspired to write Wanting Mor. Jameela’s life provides the reader with a window into another culture, one that may be unfamiliar and new. Her struggle is told in first person narrative, making the emotions honest and real. There are many Pushto words used authentically in the dialogue between characters and in Jameela’s narration. In the back of the book is a helpful glossary of words and definitions. Students in sixth grade through eighth would benefit from reading this book and engaging in discussion of life in Afghanistan. This book could be used in literature unit, paired with other books based in the Middle East, such as the Breadwinner, which also has a female protagonist set in Afghanistan.
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Mar 18, 2012 Addie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-eastern-lit

Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan
Groundwood Books, House of Anasi Press, Toronto & Berkeley, 2009
Interest level: YA (grades 7-10)

The main character, Jameela, is a young girl from Afghanistan. Her mother, Mor, dies from disease at the beginning of the book and now Jameela is left behind to deal with her irresponsible father and take over all the household duties. They live in poverty in a hut with no plumbing and a dirt floor, and they cook over a fire. They never have enough food, and their remot...more Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan
Groundwood Books, House of Anasi Press, Toronto & Berkeley, 2009
Interest level: YA (grades 7-10)

The main character, Jameela, is a young girl from Afghanistan. Her mother, Mor, dies from disease at the beginning of the book and now Jameela is left behind to deal with her irresponsible father and take over all the household duties. They live in poverty in a hut with no plumbing and a dirt floor, and they cook over a fire. They never have enough food, and their remote village has no doctor and no school. Her father is cruel to her and smokes opium and drinks, even though their religion forbids it. Her father was originally from Kabul, so after his wife Mor dies, he decides to return to the city where he thinks things will be better and he can find work. He sells all their belongings and Jameela only has a few minutes to say goodbye at her mother’s gravesite. When they arrive in Kabul, they stay with some of her father’s friends and Jameela is put to work cooking and cleaning. When that living situation didn’t work out, Jameela’s father decides to get married to a woman he barely knows, who he introduces to Jameela as her new mother. The arrangements are made very quickly and Jameela and her father move in to this woman’s house. Again, Jameela is forced to cook and clean, but she cannot please her new mother, who is extremely cruel to her. Her new stepmother tells Jameela’s father to get rid of her and so her father abandons her in a market. A kind butcher takes her to an orphanage, where Jameela actually has the opportunity to learn to read and make friends. Some American soldiers who help out at the orphanage take her to their military hospital, where she has surgery to fix her cleft lip. Life improves greatly for Jameela and she eventually wants to become a school teacher at the orphanage. She finds her father again and when he discovers her lip has been fixed and she can read, he tries to convince her to move away with him. She refuses though because she is quite happy with her new life at the orphanage.

The book is set in Afghanistan in 2001, right after the American invasion. The author tries to provide a culturally accurate depiction of what life is like in Afghanistan and I think she does a great job. The author, who was born in Lahore, Pakistan, is an expert on books with Muslim themes and her books are often set in or feature characters from Pakistan and the Middle East. In the author’s note, we find out that this story is based on a true event. Khan read a news report about orphanages and it told about a young girl whose father remarried and his new wife didn’t want the girl, so they left her in the marketplace, just like Jameela is abandoned in Wanting Mor. Khan’s sister-in-law, who is from Kabul, provided information about culture and life in Afghanistan for this book. Khan also had two other people from Kandahar read the book to review it for accuracy. Although I am not very familiar with life and the culture of Afghanistan, the details in the story seem very authentic.

As an American reader, reading about the life of a Muslim girl in Afghanistan, some of the major cultural differences were surprising and difficult to understand. Because of the reading level , content, and the age of the main character, I’d say the target audience is middle school. If I had any of my middle school students read this book, I would want to prepare them for these differences and make sure they had a little background knowledge about the cultural differences, the War in Afghanistan and Muslim beliefs and practices. A young student who no background knowledge of these things might have difficulty comprehending the book. There were many unfamiliar words (some in the Pushto language, some dealing with Islam and cultural details) that aren’t defined in context. There is a glossary in the back of the book, but some readers might not find it – there is no indication within the text or at the beginning of the book. The languages and groups of people mentioned in the book (Pushto, Farsi, Punjabi) may be unfamiliar to any reader who does not keep up with the news and has not read anything about people in Afghanistan. Prayer customs are also not explained (how many times per day, when, washing rituals, etc.), so if a reader has no prior knowledge about Islam, they may be confused.

For a female American reader, it is also shocking how women are treated in the book – especially Jameela because she is a poor, young, uneducated girl with a cleft lip. As a young girl, she is expected to do all the housework after her mother dies – and it’s very labor intensive because they live in a hut with no plumbing. She keeps reminding herself of what her mother had told her before she died – if she can’t be beautiful, she can at least be good and people will appreciate that. She has never been educated and cannot read, so her opportunities in life are dismal. She is also required to wear a head scarf (porani), but she seems very comfortable with this and even says negative things about women who don’t wear a head covering or women who dress suggestively and wear makeup (like Westerners). When her and her father first move to Kabul, Jameela is shocked by the women there who wear short skirts, makeup, and no head covering, and have parties where they dance and drink – all of these things are forbidden by their religion and Jameela thinks they are immodest and shameful. Jameela is very religions and doesn’t like it when others don’t take their prayers and their faith seriously.

One of the most shocking episodes in the book was when one of Jameela’s friends wears a tight, low-cut dress with no head covering and when men bump into her on purpose and a boy grabs her breast, Jameela thinks it’s funny. The thinks it’s the girl’s fault for wearing those clothes and inviting harassment – it’s not the men who are at fault. This is very different from our Western view, where women have equal rights and sexual harassment is taken very seriously. Jameela seems very judgmental and even mean at times, because of her religious beliefs and social customs – it is very unsettling to an American reader who is not used to that type of thought.

It’s also very disturbing that her father leaves immediately after his wife dies and soon makes the hasty decision to marry another woman who he didn’t know very well and Jameela had never even met before. It seems incredible to an American reader that her father just announces that this strange woman would be Jameela’s new mother. This is definitely something that would not happen in the United States. One of Jameela’s friends at the orphanage (who is a teenage girl), also meets a boy and is married to him within a few weeks, without really knowing him very well. Apparently this is not something that is shocking and strange to the people there, as it would be in the United States, where our beliefs and customs surrounding marriage are much different.

The book also deals with the American invasion of Afghanistan, but doesn’t go into great detail, so some prior knowledge is assumed. There are mentions of foreigners bombing them, American military machines (and before the Americans, it was the Russians), and Taliban rule. Jameela’s mother’s entire family had been killed by a bomb dropped on a family wedding celebration. Jameela had to help pick up body parts and bury them all. Death is a part of life there – there are lots of funerals, many people had been killed by mines, drought, disease, war, and other causes. She has a lot of resentment and anger about the American soldiers killing her innocent family members, so she has very mixed feelings about the soldiers who help out at the orphanage. Jameela says “they are powerful and we are not” and her friend tells her, “first the soldiers break our country, now they want to fix it.” Because of the general distrust of the American soldiers, the other girls at the orphanage tell Jameela not to get the surgery to correct her cleft lip (although she ultimately decides to go ahead with it).

Overall, I enjoyed the book and thought it was a cultural authentic and compelling story. I also think it’s an important book because our students should to read and learn more about life in other countries and cultures that are very different from their own. But because there are so many cultural differences and issues dealt with in the story (without much explanation), the subject matter would make it a complicated and difficult read for younger kids with no background knowledge. Amazon lists the book for age 10 and up (grades 4 and up), but I would only suggest this book for students in grades 7 and up. Even though the reading level is not difficult, the subject matter makes it harder to comprehend if the student doesn’t have enough background knowledge.
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CH13_Meghan Schultz I'm reading this book as well; I actually just added it to my "to-read" list. The reason why I picked it up is because it sounds EXACTLY like the book...more
Mar 16, 2012 12:44pm

Nashwa M. This is a must read for me too. I was very fascinated by your excellent review, and can understand your surprise by the author’s justification of many...more
Mar 21, 2012 07:32pm

Feb 15, 2010 Mrs. Romaniuk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, wishlist-to-buy, middle-east, realistic-fiction

“I thought she was sleeping,” says Jameela at the beginning of this moving book. She describes how she discovered her mother, motionless and cold, one early morning. From this point on, her life changes drastically at a dizzying pace. Her father takes her away from the village she called home to live in Kabul. Jameela is self-conscious and constantly hides behind her porani due to her cleft palate. Not long after, her father remarries and Jameela’s stepmother convinces him to abandon Jameela. Th...more “I thought she was sleeping,” says Jameela at the beginning of this moving book. She describes how she discovered her mother, motionless and cold, one early morning. From this point on, her life changes drastically at a dizzying pace. Her father takes her away from the village she called home to live in Kabul. Jameela is self-conscious and constantly hides behind her porani due to her cleft palate. Not long after, her father remarries and Jameela’s stepmother convinces him to abandon Jameela. Thus, we follow Jameela as she struggles to keep up with her father to a busy street market, where he abandons her. Alone and scared, she ends up in an orphanage, struggling to find her place in the world and continuously wanting more.

Told in first person point of view, this novel is very engaging and allows readers a rare glimpse of what life is like for abandoned/orphan children in Afghanistan, after the U.S. invasion. Jameela is torn about the soldier’s presence in the region. They do harm and good, operating on her cleft palate but dropping bombs on parts of the city. The novel also sheds light on how women cover themselves and details a few reasons as to why they do this. At one point, Jameela and Zeba, a girl from the orphanage, are walking in the busy market and Jameela is more covered up than her friend. She observes that “Zeba’s hair flows out behind her in waves, and her kameez is tight and cut low. The same men that lower their gaze and step aside for me to pass brush right up against her. She doesn’t seem to realize it’s not an accident… A dirty young boy bumps right into Zeba then. I can see him squeeze her breast. This time Zeba gets mad and slaps him on the head. He runs off laughing” (p. 167). This, among other examples in the book, shows how the women cover up their bodies to exercise power over men and gain respect, contrary to how Westerners may look at the practice. Overall, this novel is well-written, poignant, and shows a culture many of us know little about. It is definitely worth the read and will leave you thinking long after you’ve put the bok down.
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Apr 21, 2010 Mary Kate rated it 2 of 5 stars

Wanting Mor was a challenge for me. I found the vocabulary a bit of an obstacle. In fact, I didn't feel engrossed in the story because of it. Despite this, it was interesting to learn more about a culture that I knew little about. One thing that shocked me was actually how badly women treat each other. I couldn't believe how almost every mother-figure in the book treated her like a slave. It was a tough glimpse into a culture where women are often mistreated. Still, there are always those who s...more

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Feb 04, 2011 Eh Lah rated it 4 of 5 stars

My teacher was suggested this book for me to read. The book is not going to be that hard to read. And I’m could know the word that are used and the event well. Then I take to read the book. It is how I get the book “Wanting Mor.”
Even though I didn’t choose the book myself, I love this book. I think the author so smart. The book was just a fiction. But I had a feeling for it. The reason I think why the author was written the book as thing happen in the story is to make the reader experience of ha...more My teacher was suggested this book for me to read. The book is not going to be that hard to read. And I’m could know the word that are used and the event well. Then I take to read the book. It is how I get the book “Wanting Mor.”
Even though I didn’t choose the book myself, I love this book. I think the author so smart. The book was just a fiction. But I had a feeling for it. The reason I think why the author was written the book as thing happen in the story is to make the reader experience of hard life. Today, many children become orphan or have been thrown away from their single parents. It happens to every country because of money.
When Jameela walked with her to the marketplace, she did a beautiful thing for her father that is often reflects to my head. While they are walking, Jameela father was stumbled. Jameela loved her father even though her father is careless for her. She helped her father to stand up and said a cheerful word for her father.
Because of the action Jameela acted, and then I like this part. Jameela often told that her father didn’t like her by the way he is looking at her. But I liked Jameela. If her face is ugly because of her lip, still her heart and her spirit are pretty. She had a good heart and meek. She was just a girl, but her actions teach us a good thing.
Jameela loved her mother. She is the only one who Jammela felt comfortable with. But she suddenly leaved Jameela. With her mother passed away, Jameela life was changing. She became worthless but a good person.
How can Jameela travel along with her father? Her father is the one who didn’t like her. Yong Jameela now going to faces a hard life than usual. She lost a person who love her and care for her.
If is not a non-fiction, still this is a good book. The events were explained well as it was real. It is interesting fiction. And this will be a good lesson for those who are rude to become a nicer person. For those who read this will like it. It is full of interest. It’ll really draw you to the story.
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Jul 05, 2010 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: tween, multicultural, girl-main-character

Jameela's story is heartbreaking, yet it is so lovely to see her grow and learn and navigate her way through a troubled world. Ultimately, her story is one of empowerment and hope and opens a window onto modern-day Afghanistan. This was another book that swept me up after the first few pages and kept me going until the end.
Readers who like strong female characters, enjoy learning about other cultures (or reading about their own, depending on the reader), and tend toward realistic fiction might...more

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Feb 11, 2011 Anisah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan is one of the most inspirational stories i've ever read. The main character Jameela who faces a lot in postwar Afghanistan, though the war may be over lives of the afghans have changed. Jameela loses her mother whom she calls Mor in afghani, the loss is devasting for her but leads to a series of events that are unimaginable. Jameela suffers a lot and is put through many tests by Allah as she sees it, always referring back to her strong faith and trust in religion to...more

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Nov 30, 2009 Chelsey Clammer rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's a quick read and an interesting story. Although, I had a hard time with Jameela's devotion to God. On the one hand, I thought it was really beautiful how spiritual she was, and on the other I wanted her to find her own strength that was separate from that of a higher power. Still a good story, though, about a young girl in Afghanistan figuring out how to survive any situation she's thrown into. It would be a really good book for an American middle school/high school student to read in order...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Rebecca Mullins rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: coming-of-age, culture, diversity, family, friends, chapter-book

This book is so good. The setting is Kabul. A little girl loses her mother to an illness and she is left with her father. They pack up and move to Kabul and rotate from family to family doing odd jobs. He eventually remarries to a woman who convinces him to leave Jameela on a street corner. Jameela meets a man who takes her to an orphanage. There, she learns to read and she makes new friends. Jameela also has a hair lip, which gets fixed. In the end of the book justice is served to her father. T...more

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Dec 02, 2012 Kandace rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book because even though it's about a young girl in modern-day Afghanistan it's a fitting description of any girl trying to uphold her standards in an every decaying society. I was really scared about what could have to a girl in Afghanistan until I read the Author's note and found out the general ending. I really liked how she overcame adversity and temptation to do what she knew/felt was right. I want my girls to read it when they're preteens so they can see that no matter...more

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Dec 04, 2009 Yvonne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction-for-teens

Most of Jameela's relatives were blown up by bombs while at a family wedding. Then, in short order, her beloved mother dies, her fearsome father moves her to Kabul and then abandons her in the heart of the chaotic city. How this little Afghani girl with a cleft palate manages to survive and thrive amid poverty and war is a gripping tale that miraculously manages to be "gentle" enough for a junior reader. True to the culture and with lots of authentic vocabulary, this book is based on the life of...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Based on a true story, this is a powerful and touching novel about a young girl named Jameela living in a poor village in post-Taliban Afghanistan. War is second nature to her life but she dreams of going to school and reading. She also wishes that she was not born with a cleft lip among a list of other things she hopes for. Throughout all of her hardships however, Jameela has had undying faith and strength passed down from her mother, Mor. Her mother dies suddenly, and more changes come Jameela...more

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