Shabanu

Unlike the winds that sweep across the dunes of the Cholistan Desert, Shabanu has learned that it is not for her to determine the direction of her life. It is her father who will decide. For countless generations that has been the law of her people.

Soon her older sister, Phulan, will marry. By next year's rains, Shabanu too will have a husband. Her father has arranged it. Shabanu knows he means well, and she accepts his decision. As a daughter that is her duty.

But Shabanu's willingness to submit is tested when the marriage plans are wrecked and in a hastily arranged attempt to uphold the family's honor Shabanu is pledged to the brother of a wealthy but despised landowner. To accept her father's decision would bring prestige to her family but will consign Shabanu to a life of servitude and emotional bondage. But to follow her heart and rebel against her father would shame her family and betray her culture.

Awards and Citations:

- Newbery Honor, 1990
- International Reading Association Young Adults' Choices, 1991
- Notable Book in the field of Social Studies, 1992
- IRA Teachers' Choice
- Horn Book Fan Fare Honor Book
- New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year
- ALA Best Book for the Young Adult
- ALA Notable Book

Reviews:

“It is a pleasure to read a book that explores a way of life profoundly different from our own, and that does so with such sensitivity, admiration and verisimilitude. Ms. Staples, who was a UPI correspondent in Asia and has worked for The Washington Post, has surely accomplished a small miracle in the unfolding of her touching and powerful story. She has managed to present to her readers an engaging and convincing portrait of an adolescent girl who is alternately bewildered and exhilarated by her changing mind and body. At the same time, the author offers rich and provocative insights into a culture so distanced from rock videos and designer jeans as to seem extra-planetary. I hope her readers will gain from it a renewed sense of self and a deep respect for what is other.”
-- Maurya Simon, The New Your Times Book Review

“This first novel is, on several counts, one of the most exciting YA books to appear recently. Staples is so steeped in her story and its Pakistani setting that the problematic use of a first-person voice for a desert child rings authentic – the voice is clear, consistent, and convincing, the narrative all the more immediate. An enormous amount of information on nomadic life surfaces in earthy details that move the story along, build a world, and develop a protagonist who is spirited but bound by the ways of her people. Through an involving plot Staples has given young readers insight into lives totally different from their own, but into emotions resoundingly familiar.”

-- Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, University of Chicago

“Shabanu’s world is foreign, mysterious, and exotic, but her longings are as familiar as our own: to be the mistress of her fate. It is this recognition that creates a kinship between her and us, that makes us weep for her loss as well as for our own.”
-- English Journal

“This Newbery Honor book about a Pakistani girl is a thorny, poignant coming-of-age novel. Staples’ depiction of desert life is breathtaking. She employs vivid, lyrical metaphors to create the potency of the family’s joys and struggles.”
-- Publishers Weekly