Jameela, a young Islamic girl who has a cleft lip, lives with her mother and father in a war-torn village in Afghanistan. When her beloved mother, Mor, dies suddenly, her father takes Jameela with him to Kabul to seek a new life. He turns to drugs and alcohol and marries a new wife who treats Jameela like a slave and urges him to abandon Jameela in Kabul’s busy marketplace. Through the kindness of strangers, Jameela is placed in an orphanage, where she goes to school, learns the power of an education, and has surgery on her deformed lip. This, together with her strong faith and memories of her mother, allows her to turn her life around. This touching story, rich in cultural content, is set in 2001 and is based on real incidents. The many Pushto and Arabic words in Jameela’s first-person narrative are explained in a helpful glossary. The author has a teaching guide and book talk/tutorial for this book on her website at http://www.rukhsanakhan.com mjw