Monday, February 15, 2021

A Thousand Questions by Saadia Faruqi - OPTIONAL

A Thousand Questions by Saadia Faruqi
, 320 pages. Quill Tree (Harper), 2020. $17 

Content: G 

BUYING ADVISORY: EL – ADVISABLE, MS - OPTIONAL 

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE 

Mimi and her mother are spending the summer with her maternal grandparents in Karachi, Pakistan. In America they are poor, but in Pakistan they and are rich with a beautiful house and servants. One of those servants is Sakina, the young daughter of the cook. Sakina’s family is poor – if Abba (Dad) doesn’t go to his job, they will have no way to make money. Because Abba is sickly, Selena has to leave school in order to help him. As the girls get to know each other, the both have many questions. Eventually those questions are also for the adults in their lives. 

Faruqi gives us a peek into a very different life in a different part of the world . The girl’s alternate chapters, so we see Sakina as much as we do Mimi. The side story of Mimi’s estranged father is okay, but is really a distraction from the friendship of the girls. 

Cindy, Library Teacher, MLS 

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