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The good braider : a novel / Terry Farish.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: Tarrytown, NY : Marshall Cavendish, 2012.Edition: 1st edDescription: 221 p. ; 19 cmISBN:
  • 9780761462675 (hbk.)
  • 0761462678 (hbk.)
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • [Fic] 23
Summary: Follows Viola as she survives brutality in war-torn Sudan, makes a perilous journey, lives as a refugee in Egypt, and finally reaches Portland, Maine, where her quest for freedom and security is hampered by memories of past horrors and the traditions her mother and other Sudanese adults hold dear. Includes historical facts and a map of Sudan.
List(s) this item appears in: English 2 Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
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Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Phillipsburg Free Public Library YA Paperback PHS Reading List YA PB FICTION F Available 36748002299230
Adult Book Phillipsburg Free Public Library YA Paperback PHS Reading List YA PB FICTION F Available 36748002299115
Adult Book Phillipsburg Free Public Library YA Paperback PHS Reading List YA PB FICTION F Available 36748002299057
Adult Book Phillipsburg Free Public Library YA Fiction PHS Reading List YA FAR Available 36748002093658
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Good Braider was selected as the 2013 Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year and a book of Outstanding Merit.

In spare free verse laced with unforgettable images, Viola's strikingly original voice sings out the story of her family's journey from war-torn Sudan, to Cairo, and finally to Portland, Maine. Here, in the sometimes too close embrace of the local Southern Sudanese Community, she dreams of South Sudan while she tries to navigate the strange world of America--a world where a girl can wear a short skirt, get a tattoo, or even date a boy; a world that puts her into sharp conflict with her traditional mother who, like Viola, is struggling to braid together the strands of a displaced life. Terry Farish's haunting novel is not only a riveting story of escape and survival, but the universal tale of a young immigrant's struggle to build a life on the cusp of two cultures.

The author of The Good Braider has donated this book to the Worldreader program.

Follows Viola as she survives brutality in war-torn Sudan, makes a perilous journey, lives as a refugee in Egypt, and finally reaches Portland, Maine, where her quest for freedom and security is hampered by memories of past horrors and the traditions her mother and other Sudanese adults hold dear. Includes historical facts and a map of Sudan.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up-Sixteen-year-old Viola's family leaves their home in South Sudan after she is raped by a soldier. The arduous journey brings hunger, tragedy, and years in a refugee camp before they relocate to Portland, ME. Consumed by the horrors of her past and a typical teen's desire to fit in, Viola struggles to create an identity that incorporates her African heritage and American freedom. Farish (The Cat Who Loved Potato Soup) creates fully realized characters in spare but lyrical free verse. After the rape, for example, Viola's grandmother braids her hair, "squeezing out the tears." Hair-braiding is an ongoing metaphor for the healing hands of women and Viola's task of weaving together the strands of her life. This audio production accentuates the text by pausing between poems to make the breaks clear. Actress Cherise Boothe differentiates characters smoothly. Viola speaks with a lilting accent while her redheaded American crush uses sharper consonants and a deeper tone. Fans of Linda Sue Park's A Long Walk to Water and Thanhha Lai's Inside Out and Back Again will appreciate Viola's odyssey "from one country to another and one life to the next." Listeners will grow in empathy for survivors who seek freedom from fear and to ultimately adapt to life in the United States.-Toby -Rajput, National Louis University, Skokie, IL (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Like Mark Bixler's adult book The Lost Boys of Sudan (2005), this powerful novel tells today's refugee story from a young viewpoint, but here the Sudanese teen is a girl. In free-verse poems, Viola, 16, remembers being driven from home in the brutal civil war, then the long, barefoot trek to Khartoum and Cairo, escaping land mines and suffering hunger along the way, until at last she and her mother get refugee status, board a plane, and join her uncle in Portland, Maine's Sudanese community. Never exploitative, Viola's narrative will grip readers with its harsh truths: the shame of her rape in Sudan and the loss of her bride wealth ; the heartbreak when her little brother dies during their escape; her wrenching separation from her grandmother. The contemporary drama in Maine is also moving and immediate. At 17, Viola is thrilled to go to school, and she makes friends, even a boyfriend who teaches her to drive: but can he get over her rape? Always there is her mother, enraged by the new ways. An essential addition to the growing list of strong immigrant stories for youth.--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2010 Booklist

Horn Book Review

In Juba, Sudan, life is a mixture of fear and violence for Viola and her family. Viola is haunted by the image of the narrow back of a young boy shot by a soldier for attempting to defend her. When the soldier rapes her, and her "bride price" is compromised, Viola, her mother, and her brother Francis decide to escape their bleak, war-torn village in hopes of a better future. The three flee to Cairo, and, though their journey is delayed by seemingly endless red tape, they finally settle, in the summer of 2002, amidst a large Sudanese community in Portland, Maine. The free-form verse and repetitive symbolism tie this portion of Violas life, tenuously, to her slowly receding connections to Sudan. The sometimes disjointed language is a fitting complement to the shattered fragments of Violas existence. Farish succeeds best when exploring the clashes between African and American culture. Though she breaks no new ground with the immigrant story, she deftly illuminates the tensions between Violas mothers traditional ways and Violas desire to assimilate. Yet Violas attachment to Africa remains strong through Farishs powerful imagery, especially the importance of braiding for African women, which effectively weaves the elements of her story together. rebecca kirshenbaum (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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