Lost Girl Found

Starred review from February 15, 2014
Much ink has been worthily spent calling attention to the harrowing experiences of the Lost Boys of Sudan. So what of the girls? Addressing a severe imbalance in the amount of attention paid to girls and women victimized in Sudan's long civil war, the co-authors (one of whom has worked in East Africa) offer a fictional memoir. It wrests a fictional Didinga child from her settled life amid family and close neighbors and sends her on a long, heartbreaking trek to a huge refugee camp in Kenya. Relating her tale in present tense in a distinct, spirited voice ("That is one thing about me. I don't get scared"), Poni goes on to describe her narrow escape from that camp and a forced marriage in the wake of a United Nations worker's failure to honor a promise of help. She recounts her later stay in a small women's shelter in Nairobi and, at last, the strenuous process of qualifying for a refugee program in far-off America. Though Poni learns to distance herself emotionally from the atrocities she witnesses, reminders of home force her to make agonizing choices along the way. Readers will come away with clear pictures of gender roles in Poni's culture as well as the South Sudan conflict's devastating physical and psychological effects. Two afterwords and a substantial bibliography (largely on the Lost Boys, perforce) will serve those who want to know more. Moving and necessary. (timeline, glossary, maps) (Fiction. 12-14)

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Starred review from April 1, 2014

Gr 8 Up-This poignant and gripping story follows Poni, a young girl growing up in a Sudanese village. The emotional tale depicts the challenges of Poni's everyday life before the war. Against all odds, she must find a way to stay in school, deflect any young boy's attention, and fight for her life to survive malaria. But then the war comes, and everything changes. After her entire village is wiped out following an airstrike and her family is presumed dead, she must flee Sudan with a group of refugees to the safety of a refugee camp far away. Many die along the way, but Poni survives the long journey. Once she gets there, she discovers the horrors going on at the refugee camp and must escape. After she's free, a nun in Nairobi offers her shelter, the continuing education the teen has been longing for, and, ultimately, help getting to America, the land of opportunity. This book does an excellent job of evoking strong emotions from readers through its graphic depictions of life in war-torn Africa. Many are familiar with the Lost Boys of Sudan, but these authors set out to tell the stories of the Lost Girls of Sudan, and have succeeded with flying colors. This short, quickly paced narrative will stay with readers for the rest of their lives.-Candyce Pruitt-Goddard, Hartford Public Library, CT

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2014
After her southern Sudan village is bombed, Poni arrives at a Kenyan refugee camp, where conditions are brutal. Poni wants to finish her education, and she has a chance to do so when she escapes the refugee camp. Poni is a fully realized and sympathetic character. This fast-paced novel covers a lot of ground and incorporates a good deal of historical background.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2014
We often hear about the lost boys of Sudan, but what about the girls? Bassoff and DeLuca (an anthropologist) have created a representative character in Poni, a feisty young girl who loses everything when her southern Sudan village is bombed. After weeks of walking, she arrives at a Kenyan refugee camp, where conditions are brutal and where she is assigned a foster mother who values her mostly for the bride price she will fetch. Poni doesn't want to marry anyone, not even Lokure, the boy from her village who writes her love notes and who seems to be her kindred spirit. She just wants a chance to finish her education, and she has an opportunity to do so when she escapes the refugee camp and takes a bus to Nairobi where there is a school for girls. This fast-paced novel covers a lot of ground, geographically and temporally; by the time Poni is ready to head to America to settle permanently, she is about to enroll in college. While the authors provide a good deal of historical background, these details never bog down the story itself, mainly because Poni is such a fully realized and sympathetic character that she engages readers from start to finish. kathleen t. horning

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)