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Aug 12, 2010

Truly rated it:

Apa yang kamu inginkan?” Tanya seorang hakim
”Saya ingin bercerai” Jawan Nujood dengan tegas

Shafa Arawinda, seorang gadis berusia 10 tahun. Duduk di kelas V SD. Selain sekolah dan les, ia menghabiskan waktunya bermain dengan teman-teman. Ia juga menggemari coklat. Hari-hari dihabiskan dengan kecerian dan kegembiraan khas anak-anak.

Nujood Ali lahir di Yaman tahun 1998. Ia bukan siapa-siapa, hanya seorang anak perempuan yang memiliki orang tua dan banyak saudara. Ia ju More...

14 comments like (20 people liked it)

May 24, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

I purchased this book on a whim at the book store today. The title was compelling and I have a penchant for survival stories. With that, the content of Nujood's story is unquestionably salient. Her experience is one of courage and extraordinary spirit. For me, this is the strength of the book. It pains me to say that despite all that, I cannot in good conscience give the book a strong rating.

Nujood's voice was drowned out by "co-author's" Delphine Minoui. To the point wher More...

6 comments like (25 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2011

Petra X rated it:

This book was the story of Nujood, aged 10 and living in the Yemen, a Muslim country, who was brave enough to go to the courts in the capital and ask the judges to grant her a divorce. That is such an amazing feat, I am sure I can barely imagine the courage this girl had.

Nujood, who had just one year of schooling, lived in a very poor family that sometimes had to beg for food, and was sold for $750 to a man in his thirties who promised, so the father said, that he wouldn't touch he More...

9 comments like (31 people liked it)

May 26, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

Such a brave and resilient little girl! At the age of 10, Nujood was married off to a man of thirty. He promised her father that he wouldn't consummate the marriage until she'd reached puberty, but began daily raping her starting on the wedding night. He also beat her black and blue on a regular basis. While on a visit to the city to see her family, Nujood ran away and stumbled into the courthouse asking, "Where's the judge? I want a divorce!" She had no money, no education, and n More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 05, 2011

Amy rated it:

If this book doesn't make you stfu about your first world problems like getting the wrong latte at Starbucks or not being able to find the right color of sweater for your chihuahua, nothing will.

Seriously, at the age of 10, when many (American) girls are wearing booty shorts and trying to emulate Miley Curys, Nujood is sold by her family to a 30-year-old man as his wife. She comes from a world where this isn't entirely unusual. It also isn't unusual for men to have multiple wives, an More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Jun 15, 2011

Mary rated it:

This is directed at a young reader, and is written in the first person. Somehow, the personality of a little girl seems stripped out, but the story is fascinating, nonetheless. Poverty dooms people in third world countries. Ancient customs are puzzling. Apparently a village dispute, or dislike of Nujood's father, set all these events in motion, but it was not only Nujood who suffered in this story. In the back details the reader can piece together a vendetta that started with the rape of N More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2012

Amy rated it:

Throughout this book, I had to keep reminding myself that the events and characters in it are all real, and not some work of fiction.

Nujood, a ten year old girl from Yemen, has her life torn apart when her family marry her off and send her to a remote village to live with her in-laws, despite the legal age to marry of 15. I found myself hooked on this tale as she struggles against sexual abuse from her husband and tries to find the courage to help herself. Her vain hopes of help fro More...

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Jan 08, 2012

Liz rated it:

I'm not a big non-fiction reader, but the title of this one grabbed me and wouldn't let go (as I'm sure it was meant to). Just the title alone, a 10 year old divorced, means that she was married to begin with, at that age - it's (aside from a nutjob Mormon splinter group) a slap in the face to western sensibilities. Again, as the shocking title intended, I found myself unable to pass it by. I had to know how this came about and how it was resolved.

Knowing something about middle Eastern More...

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Jan 05, 2012

Sue rated it:

This was my book club's November selection. I struggle to review a book like this, where the story is an important one, but the writing left me wanting something more. So I think I'll address them each separately.

Re the STORY: Appalling, but worth reading for its ability to pull the reader's head out of the sand, so to speak, and acquaint her with the reality of life for many girls. (And this is a CURRENT reality, which makes the story even more appalling.)

Nujood is born More...

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Oct 09, 2011

Jillian rated it:

I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced is the autobiography of a Yemeni girl, who became the youngest woman in the world to get divorced. I was browsing in the young adult section of the book store, and was struck by the face of the young girl on the cover. When I first began to read the book, I was concerned about whether I would classify this it as young adult, or as a children's book. The author is very young, and writes from her 10-year-old perspective. However, the events of her life have mad More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 25, 2011

Kathryn rated it:

Impressed with Nujood. Not with Minoui. Good story, but the writing is lacking.

The older author was good about keeping to Nujood's story, but she made some decisions that I found took away from the story; using words like 'corpulent' which doesn't sound like it would be in an illiterate 10 year old's vocabulary. I think 'the fat ladies' would sounded more natural. (Clearly this is a choice of translation, as well, from Nujood's arabic, but still, there is an inconsistency of voice tha More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Sep 22, 2011

Lainy rated it:

What a truly inspiring story!

Aged just 10 years (or approximate) Nujood is taken from her childhood home and happiness and thrust into an adult world of marriage and everything that comes with it. This is the story of a brave young girl who has no choice in anything in her life and is married off by her father to a man almost 3 times her age. Her world is brutally ripped apart as she is taken from her family, childhood and everything she knows and loves to become an adult and cater t More...

0 comments like

Aug 13, 2011

Tiffany rated it:

There are times when the voice of Nujood seems to be taken over by the voice of her co-author, who is obviously the one that really did the writing here. Yet, despite that, this is a very eye-opening and critical book to read in order to learn first-hand about the plight of many young "women" (I use that word very loosely, since I certainly don't believe any ten year-old is a woman, rather than a child) in the Middle East. You will feel a great deal of pain as you learn exactly what li More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 09, 2011

Ellen rated it:

Wow. American girls think they have it bad, because they didn't get an iphone at the age of 10. This poor Yemenie girl is married at the age of 10 and then shortly after becomes divorced.

Nujood lives in a very small village in Yemen. There is alot of commotion in her famil from her older sisters and because of the "stigma" of this, and the family's "honor" is damaged. Honor is a very big thing in their village and the "save" the honor, he "marrie More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 06, 2011

Danielle rated it:

This was a very quick and powerful read! It centered around the poignant subjects of cultural traditions and women's rights. The protagonist fights against the cultural tradition of young marriage (she is 9 or 10 at the time that she is sent to live with her "husband") and makes world headlines by running away from her husband and demanding a divorce through the Yemen court system - not an easy task! Nujood is brave and admirable for standing up for what she wanted in such an oppress More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 27, 2011

Anna rated it:

When I bought this book I wasn't 100% sure what to expect. It could have gone either way. It could have been far too much harrowing detail or it could have treated the subject in a perfunctory manner. I was hoping for a nice middle of the road approach. Instead the book erred on the side of caution and was bit too perfunctory for my taste. True I didn't want a lot of detail that took away from the story, but the book left more questions about how things happened for Nujood than it answered. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 26, 2011

Diego rated it:

“I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced” is a book written by Nujood Ali and Delphine Minoui. This is a true story about the challenges that this girl, Nujood, had to overcome in order to brake from the upside down traditions that her country set upon her. At only age 10 her father forced her to marry a man three times her age, when she finally had enough of the abuse she ran away in order to find a way to save herself from the evils of her ‘spouse’. She departs for the capital where she franticly loo More...

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May 20, 2011

Louise rated it:

The country of Yemen lays at the southernmost tip of the Arabian Peninsula, washed by the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Yemen is steeped in years of history, where “adobe turrets perch on the peaks of settled mountains”. Yemen is also the realm of the “Queen of Sheba” who was a woman that inflamed the heart of King Soloman with her strength and beauty. Yemen is beautiful and well known for its oil; they say their honey is worth its weight in gold; and archaeologists come to Yemen to study the More...

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Mar 31, 2011

Ana rated it:

I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced / 978-0-307-58967-5

Heart-rending, this swift novel covers the young life of Nujood Ali, as she is pressed into marriage at a heart-breakingly young age and her new husband makes (and immediately breaks) the traditional-yet-meaningless vow that he will not consummate the wedding until she is old enough.

Although I am familiar with many biographies of women hurt and abused at an early age (only recently I read "Escape" and "Stolen Innocence"), I More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 24, 2011

Heaven is a bookstore rated it:

I am a great fan of biographies, especially those by women and added that they are women from another religion, country or time pulls me in even more.

The feminist in me wants women to learn all their life possibilities. Not to be told No or held back. So when this book came in, I knew I would love it.

It goes through the life of a Yemen girl who has some seriously bad things happening to her family, focused mostly on her young sisters. In order to fix things, or maybe to s More...

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Mar 16, 2011

Chris rated it:

Before I comment on the book, I have to say something about the writer. Ali told her story to Delphine Minoui who is responisble for the actual written word. In some ways, this makes the story read strangely. It is ten year old, but the voice at times is far, far older than ten. In part, this must be so the novel can be read by adults, but it does give it a bit strange feel to the tone. Also, I think that the lack detail, in particular about the legal aspects of the case was done for two re More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 07, 2011

Renae rated it:

This book is beautiful and shocking. It's horrifying to think that little girls are bought and sold like this everyday, that they are subjected to not only the abuse of their husbands, but perhaps of their in-laws as well. Around the world, this has been going on for centuries.

I really couldn't help admiring Nujood. She did at ten years old what scores of older woman are too frightened to do. She stuck to her guns, allowed her father to go to jail, and became one of the youngest divorc More...

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Feb 19, 2011

Lana rated it:

This book is eye opening. Though it is short and does not take long to read it provides a lot of food for thought. I will be thinking about Nujood’s story (and the story of many other girls who face similar horrors) for a long time. It is particularly difficult to know that the problem of child marriage is so hard to combat, particularly in rural areas.

The book is not very graphic, little time is given to describing the horrors Nujood experienced at the hands of the man she was marr More...

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Feb 10, 2011

Chelsea rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jan 29, 2011

Emily rated it:

This is the story of a girl in Yemen named Nujood. Her father married her off at age nine to a man three times her age. It tells about her short-lived, frightening marriage, and the successful divorce with the help of the courts and a lawyer who didn't charge her anything.

It's a very inspiring story, and I really felt for Nujood. She's a brave girl, and I'm really glad that her story is shedding some light on this issue. Of course, I wish she'd never had to go through that, but her c More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 31, 2010

Michelle rated it:

This book was a very short read that contained a ton of emotion. It was tastefully written -- it was not too graphic; yet it got Nujood's pain, suffering, and determination across to the reader. I had a stomachache throughout reading this book. I realized that Nujood was married off around the time my students are in the third grade. I understand that things are different in other cultures, but I was disgusted that her family allowed this to happen. The teacher in me wanted to call The Depa More...

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Dec 15, 2010

Jay rated it:

Firstly, this low rating isn't due what to happened to Ali. It's terrible, jaw-dropping and gut wrenching. No child should be sold off- no human being should be sold off, period- and no child should be raped. Given Ali's bravery at being able to even think of getting a divorce despite being repressed, and actually following through with it, it's not wonder she was voted woman of the year.

But I can't help and feel that this memoir drags her story down. Someone on here suggested it wou More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Nov 03, 2010

Mrs. Foley rated it:

This is one of the books for our Faculty Book Group discussion this month. It is a very compelling true story told simply. It is a quick read, but impacts you greatly. I plan to research what has happened to Nujood since the publication of the book and will be interested to see all the wonderful things I am sure she will do with her life.

Review from Booklist:
Chosen by Glamour magazine as a Woman of the Year in 2008, Nujood of Yemen has become an international hero for her as More...

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Jul 04, 2010

Julie rated it:

A relatively short book about Nujood's life and how she was married at the age of 10 to an abusive man, and filed for divorce.

It's really a more an amazing story when you read it than it sounds like in a summary. Not that her situation is unique, but it takes a strong will and intelligence to get herself out of it at such a young age.

You're reading the story through so many filters though, that it's hard to know how genuine every detail is. She didn't write the story by herse More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jun 20, 2010

Angela rated it:

The easy to read prose masks a horrific story - that of a girl sold into marriage when she's barely ten years old.

As an adult reading this story, I was craving more details. How exactly was the divorce obtained when everyone was telling Nujood how hard it would be? What was life like when she returned home and her father was released from prison? But when I think about it, those aren't the points that are important when a child is writing for other children. Maybe someday an "ad More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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