Robin Miles’s powerful emotional tone carries listeners to Nigeria and the life of an unnamed narrator in the 2010s. She is bright and beloved by family and friends. Cheer balances her worries about hiding menstrual blood, and she dreams of meetings with her first crush. Short chapters mark small moments of daily life and introduce rumors about Boko Haram. When the militants arrive, they kill her father and brothers, destroy the village, and kidnap her and other young women. Miles voices the narrator’s anger, sadness, and mourning through tone and pace, and powerfully evokes her anxiety about staying alive sexually intact. Eventual escape reveals her courage and resilience. The compelling story is followed by facts derived from interviews that provide personal and historical context. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

…[a] powerful…heartbreaking, necessary account.

★ 07/30/2018
Visions of a bright future crumble in this harrowing story based on the 2014 kidnapping of 276 Chibok girls by terrorist group Boko Haram. In short, sparse chapters with oft-repeated titles (“The Voice on Papa’s Radio”), the unnamed narrator describes her daily life in Nigeria—friends and family, domestic responsibilities, school studies resulting in a government scholarship, and dreams of becoming a teacher. Her hopes vanish when she witnesses her father’s slaughter at the hands of militants and then is kidnapped and enslaved with girls and women from her village and forcibly converted to radical Islam. The evocative, incisive portrayal of daily life before and after the abduction brings both realities into stark relief as Nigerian author Nwaubani (I Do Not Come to You by Chance) details unspeakable horrors: the slaying of family and friends, forced marriage and serial rape, a friend’s successful indoctrination and willing martyrdom to the Boko Haram cause. An afterword by Italian journalist Mazza recounts the process of interviewing survivors, escapees, and their families as research. Unflinching in its direct view of an ongoing tragedy, this important novel will open discussions about human rights and violence against women and girls worldwide. Ages 13–up. Agent: Jess Regel, Foundry Literary + Media. (Sept.)

This powerful novel … seeks to personalize the 2014 kidnapping of 276 girls from a secondary school in Chibok… Nwaubani, a Nigerian novelist, teamed up with the Italian journalist Viviana Mazza to interview the families of kidnapped girls as the basis for this heartbreaking, necessary account.” — New York Times Book Review

“Poignant and powerful, this is a story that will be hard for any reader to forget.” — ALA Booklist (starred review)

“Unflinching in its direct view of an ongoing tragedy, this important novel will open discussions about human rights and violence against women and girls worldwide.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Nigerian author Nwaubani [paints] beautiful portraits of the joy, hope, and traditions experienced by this girl, her friends, and family with the same masterful strokes as the ones depicting the dreadful agony, loss, and grief they endure. A worthy piece of work that superbly and empathetically tells a heartbreaking tale.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Nigerian author Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s harrowing YA debut is certain to stun readers. Nwaubani portions out the heartrending story in brief chapters with deceptively poetic prose... a disturbing, agonizing story that will surely provide rich thought and discussion.” — Shelf Awareness (starred review)

“Nwaubani weaves moments of hope and connection between the girls through this heart-wrenching tale. This painful, powerful story draws from interviews with female survivors of Boko Haram’s abuse and their families. It reminds readers — and the world — of the girls and women as yet unfound.” — Washington Post

“Nwaubani has crafted an emotional yet empowering tale based on the true story of 276 Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014.” — School Library Journal

“Brief, individually titled chapters augment the tension and accelerate the plot... An afterword provides critical context on Boko Haram and the 2014 attack on Chibok.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Poignant and powerful, this is a story that will be hard for any reader to forget.

Brief, individually titled chapters augment the tension and accelerate the plot... An afterword provides critical context on Boko Haram and the 2014 attack on Chibok.

This powerful novel … seeks to personalize the 2014 kidnapping of 276 girls from a secondary school in Chibok… Nwaubani, a Nigerian novelist, teamed up with the Italian journalist Viviana Mazza to interview the families of kidnapped girls as the basis for this heartbreaking, necessary account.

Nigerian author Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s harrowing YA debut is certain to stun readers. Nwaubani portions out the heartrending story in brief chapters with deceptively poetic prose... a disturbing, agonizing story that will surely provide rich thought and discussion.

Nwaubani weaves moments of hope and connection between the girls through this heart-wrenching tale. This painful, powerful story draws from interviews with female survivors of Boko Haram’s abuse and their families. It reminds readers — and the world — of the girls and women as yet unfound.

Nwaubani weaves moments of hope and connection between the girls through this heart-wrenching tale. This painful, powerful story draws from interviews with female survivors of Boko Haram’s abuse and their families. It reminds readers — and the world — of the girls and women as yet unfound.

Brief, individually titled chapters augment the tension and accelerate the plot... An afterword provides critical context on Boko Haram and the 2014 attack on Chibok.

Nigerian author Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s harrowing YA debut is certain to stun readers. Nwaubani portions out the heartrending story in brief chapters with deceptively poetic prose... a disturbing, agonizing story that will surely provide rich thought and discussion.

Poignant and powerful, this is a story that will be hard for any reader to forget.

Brief, individually titled chapters augment the tension and accelerate the plot... An afterword provides critical context on Boko Haram and the 2014 attack on Chibok.

02/01/2019

Gr 7 Up—In Robin Miles's rich, rhythmic narration, Nwaubani's (I Do Not Come to You By Chance) latest—written in chapters that are sometimes just a few lines—sounds like poetry. The story is hardly soothing, based on interviews with 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping victims. In her life before, Nwaubani's teen protagonist was often called "Ya Ta," "my daughter," a treasured only girl among five brothers. A prominent scholarship she'd recently won meant a promising future. But then her village is besieged, family and neighbors slaughtered. Stolen away, she's systematically broken down—physically, ideologically, spiritually. Her new name, Salamatu, Arabic for safety, cannot protect her from predation. Even as she witnesses her best friend's inculcation into radicalized violence, she clings to her own truths, her own survival. From young girls to older women, kind relatives to brutal abusers, Miles effortlessly adapts tone, pitch, intonation, and accent to accommodate Nwaubani's diverse cast, and then adjusts again for the final hour as she intones Italian journalist Viviana Mazza's lengthy afterword, a context-rich overview of the horrifying tragedy. VERDICT Inarguably a challenge to read on the page or in the ears, this nevertheless proves a worthy, perspective-broadening addition to YA collections.—Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

09/01/2018
Gr 8 Up—Ya Ta does not want to settle for a life dictated by her papa in her Nigerian village of Borno State. She dreams of a new pair of shoes, a university degree, and a life with Success, the son of her pastor. However, she is kidnapped with other young girls, such as her best friend Sarah and married Muslim schoolmate Aisha, by the terrorist group Boko Haram, in the middle of the night. The young women are taken to the Sambisa Forest, where they are forced to adopt a radical Islamic life and experience punishments, atrocities, and abuses. Nwaubani has crafted an emotional yet empowering tale based on the true story of 276 Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014. The author incorporates themes that are ripe for discussion, such as the importance of education of girls all over the world and how Ya Ta's Hausa culture has been shaped by Christianity, Islam, and Western charities and media. Nwaubani successfully implements Robert Browning's poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" as an extended metaphor throughout. The afterword by Viviana Mazza gives context for the novel's origins, which began with her journalistic collaboration with Nwaubani to document Boko Haram from the point of view of the girls and their families. VERDICT A strong selection for libraries serving teens, especially those looking for book club picks.—Donald Peebles, Brooklyn Public Library

Robin Miles’s powerful emotional tone carries listeners to Nigeria and the life of an unnamed narrator in the 2010s. She is bright and beloved by family and friends. Cheer balances her worries about hiding menstrual blood, and she dreams of meetings with her first crush. Short chapters mark small moments of daily life and introduce rumors about Boko Haram. When the militants arrive, they kill her father and brothers, destroy the village, and kidnap her and other young women. Miles voices the narrator’s anger, sadness, and mourning through tone and pace, and powerfully evokes her anxiety about staying alive sexually intact. Eventual escape reveals her courage and resilience. The compelling story is followed by facts derived from interviews that provide personal and historical context. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

★ 2018-05-28
The unnamed young Nigerian narrator of this novel, with a loving family and academic aspirations, is kidnapped by Boko Haram along with many other girls and women from her village. On the day the terrorists came and destroyed her village, they murdered her father and brothers, sparing only the one brother young enough to be taught their way of life. The story chronicles her cheerful, promising life before her abduction as well as the suffering and abuse she endures after being forced to part with her dreams of getting a university scholarship, becoming a teacher, and having her own family. It traverses the girl's life from dutiful Christian daughter and loyal friend to becoming a slave under her kidnappers' radical rule—and pays tribute to the fortitude and grace it takes to not only survive such an ordeal, but to escape it. Nigerian author Nwaubani (I Do Not Come to You by Chance, 2009, etc.) smoothly pulls readers into this narrative. Her words paint beautiful portraits of the joy, hope, and traditions experienced by this girl, her friends, and family with the same masterful strokes as the ones depicting the dreadful agony, loss, and grief they endure. A heavy but necessary story based on the horrendous 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of 276 Chibok girls, described in an afterword by Italian journalist Mazza.A worthy piece of work that superbly and empathetically tells a heartbreaking tale. (afterword, references, resources) (Fiction. 14-adult)