This book is one of the 100 YA books that CBC says should make you proud to be Canadian. I don't read a lot of YA fiction but this certainly seems to me to be a great story. The author spent time in Afghanistan to research this book and then had it vetted by numerous readers including Afghani Muslims.

Yasmine grew up in Britain but her parents were Afghani and they decided the family should move back to Afghanistan to try to help their country. Her father taught at a university but her mother, a lawyer, could not find work in that land that was still very traditional. While Yasmine and her mother were walking to meet her father one afternoon several vehicles full of Taliban pulled up to them and beat the mother. She was left with a badly broken leg among other injuries. The family decided to move to a village where the father's family had an ancestral home. A young girl the same age as Yasmine, Tamanna, came to deliver bread and she was asked if she would be a companion to Yasmine. Tamanna had not been educated but she was very clever and she soon learned to read and write and to speak English. Yasmine's mother was still not recovered from her injuries and they decided to go see the medic at the Forward Operating Base of the UN forces just outside of the village. On the way there they were attacked and both mother and father were severely injured. The pair were airlifted to Kandahar Airforce Base but rules prohibited Yasmine accompanying them. The forces arranged for a local driver to take her to Kandahar and Yasmine convinced Tamanna (who was to be married to a much older man) to accompany her. The driver abandoned Yasmine and Tamanna on the road because he objected to being given orders by a girl. Yasmine and Tamanna knew that they could not travel without a man accompanying them on the road. They took to the mountains, travelling by night, to find a way into Pakistan. The girls supported each other throughout the trip and Yasmine even changed identity with Tamanna when she could no longer travel.

I loved the strength of the two girls in a time and place where girls were considered second class citizens with no rights. There is also lots of information about the history of Afghanistan which shows it was not always a place of religious oppression. This book was published in 2010 so it does not include recent developments in Afghanistan but, in essence, nothing much has changed. As Sharon McKay says at the end of the timeline in the book "Peace remains...beyond reach..." ( )

Narrated by Mozan Marno. Yasmine and Tamanna become close friends when Yasmine’s father hires Tamanna to be a companion to his daughter. Yasmine and her family are western-raised and educated; Tamanna is a poor village girl who has never been anywhere else. Yasmine’s family is a target for the Taliban while Tamanna is forced into an arranged marriage. The two girls decide to flee for Pakistan for safety, although two girls traveling alone is extremely dangerous. Marno's earthy contralto and controlled pace gives listeners a visceral sense of the harshness of life in Afghanistan, but also gives nobility to the characters. ( )

We often hear in the news how awful life is in Afghanistan... so why would anyone choose to move there? Yasmine's parents feel the call of their homeland and move the family back. There they face horrible violence, yet Yasmine is able to form an amazing friendship and learn the customs of the land. However, is it worth staying when their lives are on the line? This amazing book teaches a lot about what life is like for Afghans, and leads you through a real-life adventure. ( )

Well-written, realistic story about two girls living in post-September 11th Afghanistan where the Taliban is trying to hold on to power. The oppression of and hostility toward women is depicted particularly well. ( )

A mostly well-written story of a young British-born Afghan girl, Yasmine, who has moved to Afghanistan to "rebuild" the country with her parents. When she is separated from them after they are seriously injured by the Taliban, she and her close friend, Tamanna, make a dangerous trek across the mountains to Pakistan, encountering hill people, opium addicts, and Taliban along the way. There are many Afghan terms in the novel, and these are well explained in a glossary. The post-script, which tells what happened to all of the characters weakens the conclusion considerably, and I don't understand why the author included it. Additionally, the protagonist's decision to stay in Afghanistan was less than convincing to this western reader. Not a perfect book and somewhat clumsily moralistic/politically correct at times--the suggestion that the prophet Muhammad made it clear that both males and females were to be educated did not fully convince (especially in light of the treatment of girls in the book). More challenging than Deborah Ellis's Breadwinner Trilogy and not quite as affecting. (Parvana's Journey is in my mind a superior text.) ( )