a girl named disaster book review

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A GIRL NAMED DISASTER

by Nancy Farmer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1996

Farmer (Runnery Granary, p. 300, etc.) plunges readers deep into South African social and spiritual worlds in this tale of a Shona girl fleeing an arranged marriage. When the muvuki, the witchfinder, declares that Nhamo must marry an unsavory stranger to propitiate a murder victim's spirit, Nhamo gathers her few possessions and steals away in the village's only boat, intending to float up the Musengezi to Zimbabwe and find the father she's never known. It's a perilous journey that tests every ounce of her strength, will, and ingenuity: She has to find food in seasons fat and lean, cope with loneliness, face threats from everything from (elusive, perhaps metaphysical) leopards to land mines. Gathering discorporate (imaginary? not to her) companions as she goes, Nhamo lives in and off the wild for months, ending up at last, after finding her father's grave and enduring a cold reception from his family, with the congenial scientists at a tsetse fly research station. Although Farmer describes the history and culture of the Shona and other groups in an afterword, she hardly needs to; the cultural backdrop is so skillfully developed in her protagonist's experiences and responses that it will seem as understandable—or, in the case of European and Christian practices, as strange—and immediate to readers as it is to Nhamo. This wonderfully resourceful young woman is surrounded by an equally lively, colorful cast, and by removing many of the borders between human and animal, living and dead, Farmer creates a milieu as vivid and credible as readers' own. As rewarding, and as challenging, as The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm (1994). (glossary, appendix, bibliography) (Fiction. 11-14)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-531-09539-8

Page Count: 306

Publisher: Orchard

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1996

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION

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by Nancy Farmer

by Nancy Farmer & illustrated by Rick Sardinha

THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS

by John Boyne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2006

Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point.

After Hitler appoints Bruno’s father commandant of Auschwitz, Bruno (nine) is unhappy with his new surroundings compared to the luxury of his home in Berlin.

The literal-minded Bruno, with amazingly little political and social awareness, never gains comprehension of the prisoners (all in “striped pajamas”) or the malignant nature of the death camp. He overcomes loneliness and isolation only when he discovers another boy, Shmuel, on the other side of the camp’s fence. For months, the two meet, becoming secret best friends even though they can never play together. Although Bruno’s family corrects him, he childishly calls the camp “Out-With” and the Fuhrer “Fury.” As a literary device, it could be said to be credibly rooted in Bruno’s consistent, guileless characterization, though it’s difficult to believe in reality. The tragic story’s point of view is unique: the corrosive effect of brutality on Nazi family life as seen through the eyes of a naïf. Some will believe that the fable form, in which the illogical may serve the objective of moral instruction, succeeds in Boyne’s narrative; others will believe it was the wrong choice.

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006

ISBN: 0-385-75106-0

Page Count: 224

Publisher: David Fickling/Random

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORICAL FICTION

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by John Boyne

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SEEN & HEARD

THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY

by Jenny Han ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 5, 2009

The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a...

Han’s leisurely paced, somewhat somber narrative revisits several beach-house summers in flashback through the eyes of now 15-year-old Isabel, known to all as Belly. 

Belly measures her growing self by these summers and by her lifelong relationship with the older boys, her brother and her mother’s best friend’s two sons. Belly’s dawning awareness of her sexuality and that of the boys is a strong theme, as is the sense of summer as a separate and reflective time and place: Readers get glimpses of kisses on the beach, her best friend’s flirtations during one summer’s visit, a first date. In the background the two mothers renew their friendship each year, and Lauren, Belly’s mother, provides support for her friend—if not, unfortunately, for the children—in Susannah’s losing battle with breast cancer. Besides the mostly off-stage issue of a parent’s severe illness there’s not much here to challenge most readers—driving, beer-drinking, divorce, a moment of surprise at the mothers smoking medicinal pot together. 

Pub Date: May 5, 2009

ISBN: 978-1-4169-6823-8

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2009

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

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by Jenny Han

by Jenny Han ; Siobhan Vivian

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National Book Foundation > Books > A Girl Named Disaster

A Girl Named Disaster

Finalist, national book awards 1996 for young people's literature.

Nancy Farmer's honors include the National Book Award (Children's Literature) for  The House of the Scorpion  and Newbery Honors for  The Ear, the Eye and The Arm ,  A Girl Named Disaster  and  The House of the Scorpion .  She is the author of eight novels, three picture books and a number of short stories. More about this author >

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A Girl Named Disaster  is the humorous and heartwrenching story of young girl who discovers her own courage and strength when she makes the dangerous journey from Mozambique to Zimbabwe. Nhamo is a Shona girl living in a traditional village in Mozambique in 1981. When her family tries to force her into a marriage with a cruel man, she flees. What was supposed to have been a short boat trip across the border into Zimbabwe, where she hoped to find her father, turns into an adventure filled with challenges and danger that lasts a year.

A Girl Named Disaster

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This Newbery Honor book by award-winning, bestselling author Nancy Farmer is being reissued in paperback!Eleven-year-old Nhamo lives in a traditional village in Mozambique, where she doesn’t quite fit in. When her family tries to force her into marrying a cruel man, she runs away to Zimbabwe, hoping to find the father she’s never met. But what should have been a short boat trip across the border turns into a dangerous year-long adventure, and Nhamo must summon her innermost courage to ensure her survival.

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A Girl Named Disaster

47 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

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A Girl Named Disaster (1996) is a novel by Nancy Farmer. At the start of the novel, 11-year-old Nhamo lives in her remote Mozambique village with her late mother’s family. When the local doctor, or muvuki , decides that Nhamo is to blame for her family’s recent misfortune, her aunt and uncle decide to marry her off in an arranged marriage. Desperate to avoid this fate, Nhamo flees the village and sets out in a boat for Zimbabwe. What should be a two-day journey rapidly extends into months. Nhamo’s coming-of-age journey explores the themes of The Impact of Social and Environmental Challenges , The Quest for Freedom and Belonging , and the importance of Resilience and Personal Growth .

This guide uses the 2002 Scholastic Inc. paperback edition of the novel.

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Content Warning: The source text deals with complex themes, including child marriage, domestic violence, emotional abuse, brief suicidal ideation, and cultural displacement.

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Eleven-year-old Nhamo lives in a remote village in Mozambique with her aunts, uncle, cousins, and grandmother . Nhamo has been an orphan for as long as she can remember. Her mother , Runako, was carried off by a leopard when Nhamo was three, and her father, Proud, fled the village after committing murder when Nhamo was a baby.

Grandmother is kind to Nhamo, but Nhamo’s aunt Chipo and uncle Kufa are hard on her. Nhamo spends her days completing endless lists of chores and wandering around the woods surrounding her village. She spends most of her time sneaking off to her secret hiding place on a nearby hill. Here she has filled a hole with her most valuable possessions. The most important of these treasures is Nhamo’s old magazine cover .

The cover is a margarine ad depicting a woman making toast for her little girl. Nhamo loves the image and speaks to it as if it were her mother. When she’s on the hill, she extracts the magazine cover, hosts tea parties for her mother’s spirit, and updates Mother on her life in the village.

Nhamo starts to encounter leopards in the woods one day. She’s afraid of leopards because of what happened to Mother. When she tells her aunts, cousins, and grandmother about the leopard encounter, they’re convinced she has seen a spirit.

Shortly thereafter, a cholera epidemic sweeps through the region, plaguing Nhamo’s village. Many villagers die, including one of Nhamo’s aunts. Nhamo’s cousin Masvita falls ill, too, but manages to recover. Afterward, the family takes a trip to the local doctor, or muvuki . On the way, Nhamo realizes they’re visiting the muvuki because they think she’s a witch.

The muvuki tells Nhamo’s family that Nhamo is to blame for her family’s and village’s recent misfortunes. The spirit of Goré Mtoko, the man Proud killed, wants vengeance for his murder. To appease the angry spirit, or ngozi , Aunt Chipo and Uncle Kufa decide to marry Nhamo to Goré’s violent brother, Zororo.

To avoid this fate, Nhamo takes Grandmother’s advice and flees the village for Zimbabwe. She ventures out in an old fishing boat, excited about finding her father’s family in Mtoroshanga. However, things start to go awry only hours into Nhamo’s journey. Grandmother told her the Zimbabwe border was only two days away, yet Nhamo tires out much sooner.

Over the course of the following weeks and months, Nhamo ventures alone through the wilderness. She finds islands, wards off hippos and crocodiles, and befriends baboons. She teaches herself to swim, garden, and build. Meanwhile, she makes connections with the spirit world. Finally, Nhamo crosses the Zimbabwe border and collapses on the island of Efifi.

Efifi is a small, scientific community. Its inhabitants, Dr. Everjoice Masuku , Dr. van Heerden, and Baba Joseph are intrigued by Nhamo. They welcome her to stay for as long as she likes, but also help her to find her father’s family.

Nhamo spends a school year in Mtoroshanga with the Jongwes. She enjoys her studies, but her family is unkind to her. Her great-grandfather is the only exception. He accepts Nhamo, spends time with her, and teaches her about her family and past.

On her summer break, Nhamo returns to Efifi. She’s glad the island hasn’t changed. Her old friends exclaim at how grown up she looks. Before returning to Mtoroshanga, Nhamo lies in the grass alone and communes with Grandmother’s spirit.

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A girl named Disaster

By nancy farmer.

• ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5.00 ·
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While fleeing from Mozambique to Zimbabwe to escape an unwanted marriage, Nhamo, an eleven-year-old Shona girl, struggles to escape drowning and starvation and in so doing comes close to the luminous world of the African spirits.

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Sad girl novels: the dubious branding of women’s emotive fiction

When women write complex characters, filled with desire, anger or self-destructive urges, why are their books touted as ‘sad’ and frivolous – unlike those of inward-looking male authors'?

W hat do we mean when we say a novel is a “sad girl novel”? I could list a dozen popular novels published over the last few years that have had this term slapped on them. What do they have in common? Most often a protagonist who is at times miserable and disaffected, who is suffering under capitalism, who is ambivalent about their sexual experiences and their relationships with others. Usually they are highly educated and frequently analyse their own situation. Sometimes they are grieving, often they are bored. By this metric Karl Ove Knausgaard is perhaps our foremost sad girl novelist, a master of the form. Brandon Taylor’s Real Life also meets many of these criteria, as does Fuccboi by Sean Thor Conroe . You might even call this type of novel the dominant mode in literary fiction – so why is it a girl problem?

The term sad girl novel is sometimes used interchangeably with “cool girl novel”, another dubious term that lambasts women for, among other things, dressing well and throwing parties. We’re free to like or dislike any of these books, and there’s no question that – just as in publishing more generally – middle-class and white stories continue to dominate, but lumping unrelated novels by women together whether their characters lie in bed all day or stay out all night is hardly identifying a coherent literary phenomenon. Describing Eliza Clark’s Boy Parts as sad would be like describing American Psycho as sad. When I read Natasha Brown’s Assembly , I don’t find sadness. I find glittering, righteous anger. In Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation , the protagonist’s detached register carries anger and grief. Indeed, a lot of what we’re identifying vaguely as “sadness”, is rage.

Perhaps we aren’t able to identify more complex emotions, in particular those that are unpleasant, like anger, in these novels, because of our increasingly infantilised view of women authors. Everywhere we look, women are being en-cutened, via “girl dinners” (meals, but smaller), “hot girl walks” (walks), “girl math” (inaccurate calculations). What seems to have begun as a self-deprecating in-joke has risen in popularity alongside frightening and reactionary ideas about women’s roles online (the surging popularity of tradwife content for example). I return again and again, pissed off, to this quote from Ursula Le Guin on the so-called cult of women’s knowledge:

All that all too often merely reinforces the masculinist idea of women as primitive and inferior – women’s knowledge as elementary, primitive, always down below at the dark roots, while men get to cultivate and own the flowers and crops that come up into the light. But why should women keep talking baby talk while men get to grow up? Why should women feel blindly while men get to think?

If things described as “girl” are cuter, smaller, sillier, then what does that mean a “girl novel” is? A novel, but not as important?

There are more novels being published by women than ever, and the readers of novels are also overwhelmingly female: according to YouGov , more than a quarter (27%) of women read daily, compared to a sixth (13%) of men. Men are also less likely to be readers overall, with 22% saying they never read, compared to 12% of women. But this is no guarantee that fiction by women about women garners respect. Instead, it is still variously considered to be frivolous, boring, overwritten, underwritten, too violent, too passive, unrealistic, thinly veiled autobiography, and so on and so on. Consider the Madievsky rule , the writer Ruth Madievsky’s theory that 3.5 stars on Goodreads is the best score you can get for contemporary literary fiction written by women about women (writing by men tends to sit comfortably around 4).

So why write a girl novel at all? Writing a novel about the fears, desires, anxieties and grievances of a young woman wasn’t my intention when I began my novel Dead Animals. But I have often found that the act of writing reveals what is important to you. Not just the subjects that interest you but those which annoy you, terrify you, wake you up in the middle of the night. When I look back at it now I realise my novel’s dominant feeling is not sadness but rage. The narrator’s lack of agency in London, in her job, in her relationships, another character’s obsessive desire for revenge. There are no sad girls to be found, just angry women.

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'Saddest Girl' learns that Hatteras life can be a beach

Raleigh author Heather Frese made a splash with her 2021 debut novel "Baddest Girl on the Planet," which won the Lee Smith Prize. She returns to that book's territory -- modern-day Hatteras Island -- for her follow-up, "The Saddest Girl on the Beach."

This is no sophomore slump -- far from it. While "Baddest Girl" was basically a slim volume of interconnected short stories, "Saddest Girl" is a fleshed-out, mature novel with compelling themes.

The heroine of "Baddest Girl" was Evid Austin, one of those rare BOIs (Born on the Island). She got pregnant during her freshman year at college, jumped in and out of a hasty marriage and rebuilt her life working in local real estate.

The "Saddest Girl" of the new book is Evie's best friend, Charlotte. They met in the summer of 1999 -- the year the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was moved -- when Charlotte's family came from Ohio to Hatteras for the summer. They came back almost every year since, and Evie went to visit Charlotte in Ohio.

The new book takes up at the beginning of 2010. Charlotte is reeling. Her beloved father, a kindly geologist who taught Charlotte about fossils and shells and quarks and the Big Bang, had died the previous September. He gently ordered her to head to college as he was fading from cancer, but after sleepwalking for a semester, Charlotte drops out. 

When Hemingway's Nick Adams needed solace, he headed for the North Woods. Charlotte heads for her safe place, Hatteras.

Evie's parents, who run the Pamlico Inn, give her a room and plenty of chowder. Eventually, as tourist season starts, she takes a job at the Inn's front desk.

Meanwhile, Evie is having dramas of her own. She breaks the news of her pregnancy to her family just after Charlotte arrives and has to reconcile with her boyfriend, Steve, who's no catch. (Evie's Aunt Fay rates him a jerk, and I'm euphemizing here.)

Charlotte will stick by Evie through her wedding, a couple of medical emergencies and the baby's arrival, right in the midst of Hurricane Earl.

She will also oversee the scattering of her father's ashes at sea that summer, navigating her touchy relations with her mother and brother.

There's also romance. Evie's brother Nate falls for Charlotte, rather badly, and they date. But Charlotte finds herself drawn to Michael, an oceanographer and a buff surfer. Unfortunately, he's more or less engaged to Charlotte's Cousin Troia.

A spark runs both ways, though. Soon Charlotte and Michael are trading texts, quoting passages of Orrin Pilkey's "How to Read a North Carolina Beach" to each other. Erosion isn't the only force of nature involved.

Frese, who grew up on Hatteras Island, knows her territory. She catches the twang of the Outer Bankers' "Hoi Toide" accent, with its particular vocabulary (quamish, Meehonkey). She knows the atmosphere of a beach town off season, when a nor'easter blows in. Plush, she's a fine portraitist, sketching memorable island characters like Aunt Fay, a foul-mouthed spinster who paints in the nude and sometimes forgets to put clothes on.

Hatteras is a unique place, but Frese's picture of beach life should resonate with residents up and down the Cape Fear coast. And Charlotte's journey of grief and healing will touch hearts.

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The Saddest Girl On The Planet

Heather Frese

Blair, $26.95

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Buy with 1-Click P.when("A", "a-expander", "ready").execute(function(A, expander) { A.on("a:accordion:buybox-accordion:select", function(data) { // Change active accordion pricing to APEX pricing A.$("#buyBoxAccordion").find(".accordion-header div#adbl_bb_price") .removeClass("adbl_bb_price_show").addClass("adbl_bb_price_hide"); A.$(data.selectedRow.$row).find(".accordion-header div#adbl_bb_price") .removeClass("adbl_bb_price_hide").addClass("adbl_bb_price_show"); //initialize accordion expander expander.initializeExpanders(); }); }); /* Display price in a table block so it does not overflow, ref: https://t.corp.amazon.com/D76383263 */ #adbl_bb_price { display: table; } /* APEX Pricing for Mobile & MobileApp */ .adbl_bb_price_show .adbl_bb_savings_percent { color: #CC0C39; font-size: 36px; font-weight: 300; } .adbl_bb_price_hide .adbl_bb_savings_percent { color: #CC0C39; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 300; } .adbl_bb_pay_price { font-weight: 400; } .adbl_bb_price_show .a-price-whole { font-size: 38px; } .adbl_bb_price_hide .a-price-whole { font-size: 24px; } .adbl_bb_price_show .a-price-symbol, .adbl_bb_price_show .a-price-fraction { display: table-caption; font-size: 15px !important; line-height: 26px; } .adbl_bb_price_hide .a-price-symbol, .adbl_bb_price_hide .a-price-fraction { display: table-caption; font-size: 13px !important; line-height: 10px; } #mobile_buybox .adbl_bb_price_show .a-price-symbol, #mobile_buybox .adbl_bb_price_show .a-price-fraction { display: inline-block !important; top: -15px !important; } #mobile_buybox .adbl_bb_price_hide .a-price-symbol, #mobile_buybox .adbl_bb_price_hide .a-price-fraction { display: inline-block !important; } #mobileapp_buybox .adbl_bb_price_show .a-price-symbol, #mobileapp_buybox .adbl_bb_price_show .a-price-fraction { display: inline-block !important; top: -15px !important; } #mobileapp_buybox .adbl_bb_price_hide .a-price-symbol, #mobileapp_buybox .adbl_bb_price_hide .a-price-fraction { display: inline-block !important; } /* APEX Pricing for Desktop */ #desktop_buybox .adbl_bb_price_show .adbl_bb_savings_percent { color: #CC0C39; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 300; } #desktop_buybox .adbl_bb_price_hide .adbl_bb_savings_percent { color: #CC0C39; font-size: 21px; font-weight: 300; } #desktop_buybox .adbl_bb_pay_price { font-weight: 400; } #desktop_buybox .adbl_bb_price_show .a-price-whole { font-size: 28px; } #desktop_buybox .adbl_bb_price_hide .a-price-whole { font-size: 21px; } #desktop_buybox .adbl_bb_price_show .a-price-symbol, #desktop_buybox .adbl_bb_price_show .a-price-fraction { display: inline-block; font-size: 13px !important; line-height: 16px; top:-10px !important; } #desktop_buybox .adbl_bb_price_hide .a-price-symbol, #desktop_buybox .adbl_bb_price_hide .a-price-fraction { display: inline-block; font-size: 12px !important; line-height: 9px; } -13% $18.80 $ 18 . 80

A girl named disaster audible audiobook – unabridged.

Newbery Medal, 1997.

Eleven-year-old Nhamo is running for her life. When the village witch finder decrees that she must marry a cruel stranger to propitiate an evil spirit, her only recourse is to steal a fishing boat and go looking for a father she has never met. Alone on the Musengezi River, Nhamo has meager resources to help her survive loneliness, hunger, wild animals, and even land mines. During the grueling months in her leaking boat and on a deserted island, she has only visions of her dead mother and other spirit ancestors to sustain her. They transform her solitary journey into a luminous spiritual odyssey, one from which she will need to draw strength when she reaches her destination.

Listeners who have enjoyed another of her Newbery Honor books, The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm , know the broad range of imagination and talent this award-winning author brings to her work. Young listeners will gain a healthy respect for the richness of cultural diversity even as they're realizing the universality of the human experience.

• Listening Length 12 hours and 7 minutes
• Author Nancy Farmer
• Narrator Lisette Lecat
• Audible release date November 9, 2015
• Language English
• Publisher Recorded Books
• ASIN B017O6AD4A
• Version Unabridged
• Program Type Audiobook
• See all details

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