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Circumcision, Female
3 Reviews
(3)
4-6
Akilah's best friend, Victoria, is spending the summer in Nigeria, where there will be a "special celebration to mark her coming-of-age." When Victoria returns home to Queens, something is wrong, and she finally tells Akilah what happened to her: a ritual clitoridectomy. Though Akilah is an engaging narrator, she sounds older than ten and several story elements strain credibility. But this will be an eye-opening book for most preteens.
Reviewer: Nell Beram
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
January, 2004
(4)
YA
This tale in free verse concerns a girl in a fictional island society, sent to the "fattening hut" to prepare her for womanhood. As Helen learns of the ritual genital cutting awaiting her, she determines to escape. The ending strains credibility, and the author's decision to place this real-life issue in a fantasy setting is odd, but the story, with its flowing language, is engaging, the protagonist sympathetic.
Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam
(4)
YA
When Jodie and her mother move from San Diego to Sierra Leone, lonely, anxious fourteen-year-old Jodie soon befriends Khadi, a local girl about to undergo female circumcision in a coming-of-age ceremony. The emotional and political issues surrounding female circumcision are too shallowly handled, but the general cross-cultural experience has an authentic touch. Glos.
Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam
3 reviews
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