About the Book
-
Author:
- Sylvia Whitman
- Genre:
- Contemporary
- Voices:
- Cis Girl
- Sudanese
- White (Non-Specified)
Cover Story: Eff Yes
BFF Charm: Platinum Edition (mined ethically)
Swoonworthy Scale: 0
Talky Talk: Just Gorgeous
Bonus Factors: We Have a Saying, Learning Difficulties, IDP Camps, Concerned Outsiders, Pen Pals, The Tami Taylor Award for Amazing Motherhood
Trigger Warning: Rape, Female Genital Mutilation
Relationship Status: Going To The Chapel
Cover Story: Eff Yes
THIS is a book cover, y’all! It isn’t splashed about with Big Faces or Giant Eyes or Emo Shadows; it’s stark and lovely and powerful. When I first received it, I wanted to crack it open and read it RIGHT THEN, because I figured a book with a cover as lovely as this must have some loveliness within. But I wasn’t even prepared, y’all. I was not even prepared.
The Deal:
Nawra is a 14 year old girl living in a displacement camp in Darfur. Although she cannot read or write, she is placed into a program called “Save The Girls” – a combination charity/pen pal program in which a girl from Darfur is given a monthly monetary gift and is paired with a pen pal from the United States.
K.C., Nawra’s pen pal, hates school, hates reading and particularly hates writing, so when her mother tells her that she’s signed her up to be a pen pal for a Sudanese refugee, K.C. is less than thrilled. K.C. sees writing letters to Nawra as homework-on-top-of-homework and she wants nothing to do with the entire endeavor. She’ll just send the money, thanks, and be done with it.
But Nawra’s letters, transcribed through her best friend, Adeeba, touch K.C. and inspire her. K.C.’s letters give Nawra a glimpse into a world where girls flaunt their freedoms, even if it seems that some customs are much the same. Soon, the two consider each other a sister and a confidante, and each bring light into the other’s dark world.
And they will bring light into your world, too, and this book will BREAK you, but in the best possible way.
BFF Charm: PLATINUM (Mined ethically)
Oh man, oh man, I want to offer my BFF charm and a mosquito net and malaria drugs and, well, a helicoptor escape to Nawra and her best friend Adeeba. These girls are so strong and so brave in the face of so much tragedy and if you don’t immediately love them, you are probably dead inside. You’re probably a Joffrey.
Nawra has lost almost her entire family through terrifying means and is facing an unimaginable horror and Adeeba’s father, a journalist critical of the Sudanese government, is missing and feared dead, and really they just have each other to cling to in this overcrowded and under-resourced camp for those whose homes have been destroyed. And while they don’t need me for a best friend, I have the feeling they’d welcome me gladly, because these girls have hearts as open as the Grand Canyon.
And while at first I was a little skeptical of K.C. (one’s natural inclination in the face of Nawra’s horrors is to view everyone else, including one’s self, as the most spoiled shits on the planet), it wasn’t long before I loved her just as fiercely as I did Nawra. K.C. has learning difficulties, which I think is a rare quality in a YA heroine (authors, after all, tend to enjoy school) and, combined with some family drama, has her own version of a pretty difficult life. But she’s brave and compassionate and warm and loving, and she’d make a kickass BFF for anyone.
Swoonworthy Scale: 0
This is a book about friendship and sisterhood (not scissor-sisterhood, which is obvs very swoony), so romance is definitely not on the front burner in this book. And while there are a few swoony moments between K.C. and her tutor, Parker, they aren’t the focus of the book.
And Nawra, well . . . let’s just say Nawra can’t see herself finding love with any person anytime soon.
Talky Talk: Just Gorgeous
How is this Whitman’s first novel? HOW? Why are talented people allowed to exist in this world? It isn’t fair to the rest of us!
This book is so heartbreakingly written, y’all, and both K.C. and Nawra have such distinct, humorous and thoughtful voices. Here are just a couple of excerpts that made me pump my fist while reading:
Still the children do not move, and Adeeba does not speak. Finally she says, “A dictionary is a hearth for words. It is where they gather to tell their stories.”
She looks up at the children. “Sometimes a dictionary speaks in one language,” she says. “There each word recites its family history and reveals its character.
“A word has a twin in every country, so a second kind of dictionary introduces them. They shake hands and say their names in two languages.”
And:
You will think me silly, but I am talking to your picture. Here we do not speak much of beauty because such talk can attract the evil eye. But I will say that where you see weakness and condemn it, I see a lion beneath your clothes.
Bonus Factor: We Have a Saying
Nawra’s letters to K.C. are full of various proverbs and so many of them are fist-pumpingly double-true, y’all. I found myself itching to highlight each one and I’ve already started incorporating them into my daily dialogue. A hungry mouth has no ears! I wish and you wish but God does his will! When a tree leans, it rests on its sister!
Bonus Factor: Learning Difficulties
I absolutely loved the way that Whitman approached K.C.’s learning challenges and made it clear that K.C. wasn’t dumb just because traditional means of education can’t reach her. So many bright and gifted students have been failed by our standardized, by the books, test-taking education system in America, and it’s my hope that there are one or two K.C.’s out there (or their parents) who read this book and are inspired to seek an alternative education.
Bonus Factor: IDP camps
Whitman does an amazing job of bringing the day-to-day struggles and triumphs of the IDP (Internally Deplaced Person) camps in Darfur to the page. As a reader, I felt like I could see the shaky lean-tos and overflowing toilets that go hand in hand with such densely populated places and I felt the struggles of Nawra and Adeeba as they adjusted to life surrounded by strangers instead of friends and family.
Bonus Factor: Concerned Outsiders
One of the people running the Save the Girls program is Saida Julie, an aid worker from the US. Although she is a kind soul, Whitman handles her character deftly – Julie is still terrified of Janjaweed (the government-sponsored outlaws who terrorize the countryside), unwilling or unable to risk the good of the group as a whole to save one or two people, and has her best efforts set back a bit with both red tape and armed militias. Even though Julie wants to help everyone, she can’t, and while you might rage at her and some of the other outsiders’ choices, you understand that hard choices are sadly necessary.
Bonus Factor: Pen Pals
Let’s hear it for pen pals!! The fictional Save the Girls program is based on the real Women for Women International, an organization that allows you to sponsor a woman from a war-torn region and exchange letters with her. That is SUCH a good idea, y’all; sisters doin’ it for themselves! I mean, if y’all wanted to do some sort of huge FYA sponsorship of ladies, I WOULD NOT SAY NO.
Bonus Factor: The Tami Taylor Award for Amazing Motherhood
Strong, kickass girls are usually raised by strong, kickass women, and K.C. and Nawra are no exception. Their mothers are each incredibly strong and supportive in their own ways – K.C.’s mom continues to believe in her daughter’s abilities, even when the rest of the world does not, and Nawra’s mother finds strength in parenting. For about 70% of the book, I was NOT a fan of Nawra’s mom, but then when you learn her story, well . . . she’s a fighter, that one.
Trigger Warning: Rape
Rape is one of the most brutal and widespread war crimes in the world. In fact, in a 2010 study of the Democratic Republic of Congo, over 52% of people reported having been raped by soldiers or other government officials during the course of conflict. FIFTY TWO FUCKING PERCENT, Y’ALL.
So, you know, Nawra and Adeeba and their family and friends live in Darfur, where rape is used as a weapon of war (well, I’d argue rape is always a weapon of war; it just depends on what the war is.). Their odds of not suffering from being violated are not that great. Prepare yourself.
Trigger Warning: Female Genital Mutilation
Look, I don’t want to get into a big argument on the internet about circumcision and how male circumcision is just as bad as female circumcision and etc. and so on. One is specifically used to keep someone “pure” for their future (usually too old for them) spouse and to remove any pleasure they may have from clitoral stimulation, and the other isn’t, so.
Relationship Status: Going to the Chapel
Book, I was not prepared for you. When I met you, I thought, “sure, we’ll have a lovely fling and part as friends.” But you grabbed me by the throat and by the guts and by the soul and you wouldn’t let go, no matter how many impositions life threw in our path. Now I can’t imagine a time when I didn’t love you. I can’t wait to introduce you to all of my friends and family . . . so long as they know that at the end of the day, you’re coming home with me.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received a free review copy from Simon and Schuster. I received neither money nor cocktails for this review (damnit!). The Milk of Birds is available in stores now. BUY IT.
