By Colorado Kids Advisory Board member Katie Levine

Title: A Girl Named Disaster
Author: Nancy Farmer
Illustrator: none
Publisher: Orchard Classics
Number Of Pages: 309

Ever heard of an author going to Africa for seventeen years just to write a book? Well, it must work since she got seven awards for that book.

I like how Nancy Farmer included a glossary, cast of characters, preface, and a map. The glossary was very useful because there were words that I didn't know, like "Mai" means "mom" in the Shona language. Also, there are so many characters I lost track! The preface told me why Nancy Farmer wrote the book.

While I was reading the story I had my fingers in three different places. I didn't like that. Also, I can't stand having animals get hurt so I did not like that even though it made it a lot more interesting.

This story is about a Shona girl named "Nhamo" which means disaster. She lives in a Shona village in Mozambique. Her grandmother is the only one who likes her because a leopard killed her mother and her father murdered someone and then fled to Zimbabwe. She's jealous of her cousin because she gets all of the attention; also, both of her aunts hate her. One day a sickness goes over her village, so her relatives have to travel to another village to see a witch doctor. He says Nhamo's dad murdered Gore Mtoko and his spirit put the sickness on the village. The witch doctor says the only way to please the spirit is to have Nhamo marry Gore's brother, Zororo. Nhamo`s grandmother gets so mad she has a stroke. For the next few days the grandmother comes up with a plan to get Nhamo out of there. Nhamo goes with the plan and it ends up being a journey that lasts longer than a year. You can find out what the plan is and what adventures happen during her journey when you read this book.

This book is definitely a 5th and 6th grade book.

It is amazing how Nancy Farmer went to Africa for seventeen years. She had seen books on chimpanzees and wanted to go to Africa. She only had five hundred dollars. When she got there she was one thousand miles away from the closest chimp. She experienced a lot of the stuff Nhamo experienced.

Some books like A Girl Named Disaster is Naya Nuki by: Kenneth Tomasma, Esperanza Rising by: Pam Munoz Ryan, and Isabel: Jewel of Castilla by: Carolyn Meyer.

Isn't this book amazing? I thought it was and you probably would too if you read A Girl Named Disaster. (May, 2004)