The Good Braider - Softcover

Farish, Terry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1477816283 ISBN 13: 9781477816288

Publisher: Skyscape, 2013

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

As a child I had many secret loves and one was a book I tried to hide behind the stacks at my town library so it would always be there for me. As an adult, one of my greatest loves is also a book, The Old Man and the Sea. I remember when I first read it, in one lit corner of my house, my child asleep, reading for the first time Hemingway's simple acts of human grace in that story. I also really like multicultural literature (see my blog at The Elephant Rag). One of my favorite stories I mention in The Elephant Rag is from Jamaica which offers a slang phrase for telling stories - "pop tory a me ears." I continue to make discoveries under a single light in a quiet house. I share many of these stories in the literacy program I coordinate for the NH Humanities Council, Connections.

The Good Braider is a young adult novel in verse about a young girl's fight to survive the violence of war in Juba, Sudan and then conflict within her own family when they resettle in Portland, Maine and she is both Sudanese and American.

From Kirkus Reviews

Ages 14+— From Sudan to Maine, in free verse. It’s 1999 in Juba, and the Second Sudanese Civil War is in full swing. Viola is a Bari girl, and she lives every day in fear of the government soldiers occupying her town. In brief free-verse chapters, Viola makes Juba real: the dusty soil, the memories of sweetened condensed milk, the afternoons Viola spends braiding her cousin's hair. But there is more to Juba than family and hunger; there are the soldiers, and the danger, and the horrifying interactions with soldiers that Viola doesn't describe but only lets the reader infer. As soon as possible, Viola's mother takes the family to Cairo and then to Portland, Maine—but they won't all make it. First one and then another family member is brought down by the devastating war and famine. After such a journey, the culture shock in Portland is unsurprisingly overwhelming. "Portland to New York: 234 miles, / New York to Cairo: 5,621 miles, / Cairo to Juba: 1,730 miles." Viola tries to become an American girl, with some help from her Sudanese friends, a nice American boy and the requisite excellent teacher. But her mother, like the rest of the Sudanese elders, wants to run her home as if she were back in Juba, and the inevitable conflict is heartbreaking. Refreshing and moving: avoids easy answers and saviors from the outside. (historical note) — Kirkus, May 2012

About this edition

• Publisher: Skyscape
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1477816283
• ISBN 13: 9781477816288
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224