The Red Pencil

Title: The Red Pencil

 

Author: Andrea Davis Pinkney

 

Summary: 12 year old Amira is living a peaceful life, with a wonderful father, mother, and adorable younger sister in Sudan. She enjoys drawing pictures in the sand and takes on new responsibilities around the farm as she grows up. However, her whole life changes when a terrorist group called the Janjaweed come and bring tragedy into her life. Family members and loved ones die, and Amira and her mother and sister are forced to flee with others nearby to a special camp for people who have been displaced from their homes. Amira doesn't like the camp and misses life how it was, but she then realizes that the camp and a person in it may be the key to her lifelong dream; to be educated. Things aren't easy, but the book ends hopeful for Amira and her family's future.

 

Comments: I liked this book. It was written in a poem format, which seems to be a trend these days, from what I've observed. It would've been a suitable book for introducing world problems to curious younger children, but I feel that it probably wouldn't be, because there is just too much graphic content in the scene where the Janjaweed come. That scene happened towards the beginning of the book and to be honest, it stuck with me in the back of my mind until the end of the book. I like how it shows that not all people over there who are of a different religion are "bad". It doesn't use stereotypes, which is such a relief. I really liked Amira and I felt that she was very, very brave. She had been through so much and while the book didn't really tell at the end, I hope she ended up with the education she wanted and deserved.

As a side note, I also loved the illustrations. They had a childlike playfulness to them and looked like they could've really been drawn by Amira, which is impressive.

 

Complaints: I wish the scene with the Janjaweed wouldn't have been so graphic. Maybe it wasn't graphic to some people, but I guess I'm a little sensitive when it comes to graphic books. I guess the author just wanted to really get across how terrible the attack was, which is definitely understandable.

 

Rating: 5 stars