Nisha and her twin brother, Amil, live with their father who is a doctor, their grandmother, and a servant, Kazi, in what is about to become Pakistan. Nisha's father is Hindu, and Nisha and her brother have been raised to be Hindu, but their mother, who died in childbirth, and Kazi are both Muslim. When India gains its independence from England, they partition the larger country of India into India for the Hindus and Pakistan for the Muslims. Violence erupts, and people who used to be their friends, are suddenly trying to drive Nisha's family from their home. The politics are confusing to the children, and they are upset to have to leave their home and friends. On the trek across the desert to the border they face starvation and violence, but their struggles also bring their family together.
I don't know how I missed this book back in 2019 when it won a Newbery Honor. (Actually, I was so caught up with being a new library director that year, I missed a lot of things.) This is a beautifully written but heartrending historical fiction. Both Nisha, who is shy and studios, and Amil, who is active but has learning disabilities, are sympathetic characters. Every character in the story is fully drawn and the reader can feel their internal struggles. Before reading the book I was not really aware of what happened when they partitioned off Pakistan from India, and it made me wonder, as Nisha did, why freedom from England should have created such discord in India. An author's note at the end explains more about the humanitarian tragedy. (304, 2019)
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