I have enjoyed reading, writing, and learning with you. This blog has been a good tool for us. Maybe we can read a book together again sometime and use this space to communicate, even with me here in Wisconsin and you back home in Sierra Leone, or wherever you end up in your life.

I am lucky to have been your teacher. It has been a privilege to watch you grow. I think you are not the same timid girl I met in September.

You have an exciting journey ahead of you–your life. Always remember the lessons we have learned from our books:

• Courage and Hope (Ishmael)
• Do what is right over what is tradition (Things Fall Apart)
• Love is our greatest gift (Mariam)

Love,

Ms Hogue

I think it’s good that Zalmai liked Tariq by the end.  Now they can all be a family together.

The letter from Jalil was interesting and sad.  He decided to be nice to Mariam at the end of his life but it was too late.

It seems like all the bad things that happened in this book started with Jalil.  If Jalil would have been nicer to Nana, and acknowledged to everyone that Mariam was his real daughter, Mariam would never have been married to Rasheed.  So Jalil was not a very good man.  But Rasheed was worse; he was nasty and very mean to women.  The culture of how women are treated is very bad, and Jalil and Rasheed were part of that bad culture.

It’s good that the book ended like this, because the ending made the whole story worth reading.  Laila survived all the terrible things that happened to her and Mariam, and she has a good husband who isn’t mean to her.  Everywhere in the world, some men are bad, and it’s good to know that Laila ended up with a good man.  (Laila’s father was a good man, too, but he died and couldn’t protect her.)

I’m happy that Laila is a teacher at the end, too.  She can help children learn to live better in their culture.

This chapter is so sad.  It was hard for Mom to read because she was crying.  Did you cry when you read this the first time?  Did it make you really sad?

It’s such a sad ending for Mariam, but she is very brave, and when she thinks about her life, she is proud of herself for “leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back.”  Still, it seems so unfair that the men who made the laws had to do this to her, shooting her in front of all these people in a public stadium.  But we felt proud that she did not cry or show her fear; she accepted her punishment like she had accepted so many other things in her life.

We are going to read Part Four soon, and we both hope that things will be happy and good for Tariq and Laila and the kids.

Near the end of the chapter, Laila lies next to Mariam as they think about what will be done next. But clearly Mariam has thought it all out well. She tells Laila

For me it ends here. There’s nothing more I want. Everything I’d ever wished for as a little girl you’ve already given me. You and your children have made me so very happy. It’s all right, Laila jo. This is all right. Don’t be sad.”

What have they given her? Do you think Mariam was really happy after all?

In what ways is the orphanage a good place for Aziza?

How do you know that she might not be happy there?

What do you think of Laila’s attempts to visit her daughter?

What would you do in this situation? Put yourself in Laila’s place and in Aziza’s.

Do parents put their children in an orphanage in Sierra Leone if they can’t afford to feed them? In the United States, we have social welfare. We don’t want children to starve. Although, apparently there are more children in poverty in the United States than we want to think about.

Later, after Aziza is born, do you think Rasheed knows (before p. 300) that the child is not his? How does he treat her differently from Zalmai? Is it only that Zalmai is a boy, and therefore of more value to him?

How does their relationship change?

In what ways is their relationship a gift to the other?

What did you think when the bomb hit Laila’s house? Can you see how the author is tying the two stories together now? Why is it that Rasheed is so interested in Laila in the first place? After all, he’s not really a humanitarian. Laila is very quick to agree to marry Rasheed to cover up her pregnancy. When did you first think that she might be pregnant?

What about Tariq’s fate? How do you feel about that?

What will Laila’s life be like in part three?

We just finished the scene where she and Tariq are watching the movie, and they talk about marriage just before the big on-screen kiss.  What a great piece of writing about the nervous joking, the awkwardness, the heightened awareness of yourself and the other person…  I vividly remember those kinds of experiences myself, but I was much older than Laila’s 10 years when this happened to me!