Jameela and her family live in a poor, war-torn village in Afghanistan. Even with her cleft lip and lack of educational opportunities, Jameela feels relatively secure, sustained by her Muslim faith and the love of her mother, Mor. But when Mor dies, Jameela’s father impulsively decides to start a new life in Kabul. Jameela is appalled as he succumbs to alcohol and drugs, then suddenly remarries, a situation that soon has her a virtual slave to a demanding stepmother. After she’s discovered trying to learn to read, Jameela is abandoned in a busy market, eventually landing in an orphanage run by the same army that killed so many members of her family. Throughout it all, the memory of her mother sustains her, giving Jameela the strength to face her father and stepmother when fate brings them together again. Inspired by a true story, and set in a world far removed from that of Western readers, this powerful novel reveals that the desire for identity and self-understanding is universal.
Take a closer look at Wanting Mor as examined in WOW Review.
- ISBN: 9780888998583
- Author: Khan, Rukhsana
- Published: 2009 , Groundwood
- Themes: abandonment, addiction, Death, education, Family, mothers
- Descriptors: Afghanistan, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Realistic Fiction
- No. of pages: 192
WE used to this book in our class and I couldnt stop reading we FINALLY got to finish and now we’re righting an essay about emotional and physical oppression. I really like this book and I think that the author did an AMAZAYN job!! =D
wow this book is great but personally its kind of sad too in the beggining :'(
This book brought a new perspective to light for me, that I had never considered. Although I empathized with the people of the war torn country, and the values that fueled their wars, I could not understand why the women would allow them selves to be treated in such a way. Jameela’s story opened new doors to perspectives I had not considered and never touches on an opinion of any kind. It is up to the reader to form their own opinion based on the rawness of a situation many never clearly see. EXCELLENT tool for classroom literature.
This book brought much awareness to a new perspective on Afghanistan. The reader learns from the young girl what it feels like to live in a war-torn country that has been governed by others for years, as well as what it’s like to live with your own hardships. We see from Jameela the strength women can have in a male governed society.
This novel captured by attention from start to finish. This is a great read for a younger crowd as well as for adults. The allusions to how Afghanistan used to be, as well as desribing the war-torn, post-Taliban Afganistan are very informative and heart breaking. The conflicts of beauty, lack of resources, abandonment, trust, and safety are all within this book. The conflict between traditional versus modern faith give the reader insight into the culture. This is a beautiful book. It inspires readers as it shows the strength of women who have endured so much.
The above synopsis of Wanting Mor is an excellent summary of this compelling novel. In the Author’s Note, Rukhsana Khan, states that a paragraph in a report on orphanages in Afghanistan related an incident where a girl was abandoned on the streets of Kabul by her father and stepmother.
That incident proved to be a catalyst for this engaging and hard-to-put-down book. Interestingly, Khan’s story unfolds in a fairy-tale-like pattern which tells a good story while providing many insights into the religious and cultural mores of Jameela’s world.