Returning to Afghanistan

Returning to Afghanistan is part of the “Leaving My Homeland: After the Journey” series from Crabtree Publishing. This series continues the fictional stories, begun in the Crabtree’s “Leaving My Homeland” series. The characters in these stories are young people who have been forced by circumstance to become refugees.

Returning to Afghanistan tells the story of Sonita, a fictional child born in a refugee camp in Pakistan, who was deported to Afghanistan, a homeland she had never seen. She finds that Afghanistan has been severely damaged by years of war and that poverty is pervasive, but Sonita is happy to be able to meet her grandmother for the first time.

Statistics, maps, background information about the homeland country, Afghanistan set Sonita’s story in context.

Also included are text boxes titled, “Story in Numbers”. Combined with the fictional personal narratives, these statistics give a clear picture of the experiences of refugees. For example: “In 2001, while the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, fewer than 1 million children were in school. They were almost all boys. Today, 9 million children attend school and 3.5 million of them are girls.”

Scattered through the book are different articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. These articles are a clear reminder that all refugees, including children, have rights. A resource listed at the end of the book leads the reader to a United Nations website that explains these rights in child-friendly language.

Like other books in the “Leaving My Homeland: After the Journey” series, Returning to Afghanistan includes a table of contents, a simple glossary, an index, and a page of resources for additional information. Each book ends with a list of discussion prompts to help the reader recall and consolidate the information in the book. Pages are laid out with large text size, and photos and illustrations add information about the land and the people. The picture captions are informative, adding context to explain the photos. The presentation is very reader-friendly.

In a chapter titled, “Everything Changes”, the past, present and future of Afghanistan are presented very briefly.

In the past, women had many of the same rights as men. They had an education, jobs, and freedom to make their own choices. The Taliban took away many of these rights. Today’s Afghan women are fighting for their rights. Women once again have the right to vote.

The books in the “Leaving My Homeland: After the Journey” series support global citizenship. Each book ends with a section titled, “Do Not Forget Our Stories!” In Returning to Afghanistan, students are reminded to empathize with children everywhere who face hardships but carry on.

Refugee children around the world face many risks. They flee conflict, discrimination, and violence. When they return to their homeland, they often face uncertain and even dangerous lives. Although these stories may not make news headlines every day, many of these people still need our help. The first step is to learn about and remember their stories.

Whether your school or community has a high number of refugee children or not, the books in this series belong in every library.