Middle Grade Buddy Read
I am hosting this month for the FIRST time this read.
THE NIGHT DIARY by Veera Hiranandani
Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha doesn’t know where she belongs, or what her country is anymore. When Papa decides it’s too dangerous to stay in what is now Pakistan, Nisha and her family become refugees and embark first by train but later on foot to reach her new home. The journey is long, difficult, and dangerous, and after losing her mother as a baby, Nisha can’t imagine losing her homeland, too. But even if her country has been ripped apart, Nisha still believes in the possibility of putting herself back together.
Told through Nisha’s letters to her mother, The Night Diary is a heartfelt story of one girl’s search for home, for her own identity…and for a hopeful future.
When researching about this book I found a lovely discussion question quide on Brightly that we used for our discussion.
https://www.readbrightly.com/brightlys-book-club-for-kids-the-night-diary/
I loved this book. Loved. I will be recommending it as an awesome middle grade read. It would make a wonderful classroom read. I do not know much about the history told in this book, I never learned about it in school at all. I am looking to learn more. I mentored a refugee family from Pakistan for many years and some of this story rang familiar. I have always journaled and cooking is my love language, so many parts of the book I could identify with. Along with that the reaction to trauma in the story was something I have seen and experienced as well. Overall this book is very well done. It will stay with me a long long time and I highly recommend it. I also while reading was continuingly craving my good friends Indian food.
