Newbery Medal (John Newbery Medal)
The Night Diary
The Night Diary is a middle-grade novel set during the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan, told through twelve-year-old Nisha’s diary letters to her late mother. In a world split by religion and borders, she and her family search for safety.
Work Information
Writing in a diary becomes a way for a quiet girl to survive.
Nisha, with both Hindu and Muslim heritage, crosses borders without knowing where she belongs. The diary form reveals the inner life of a quiet girl and the humanity that remains in a time of division.
Review Summaries
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The novel is valued for conveying historical tragedy carefully through a child’s point of view. It does not avoid the fear of violence, yet details of family, food, and letters sustain hope.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Kokila
- Published
- 2018-03-06
- Pages
- 272 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 14.5 x 2.3 x 21.6 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780735228511
- ISBN-10
- 0735228515
- Price
- 3476 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Children's Books/Growing Up & Facts of Life/Family Life/Siblings
NEWBERY HONOR BOOK • A poignant, personal, and hopeful tale of India's partition—and of one girl's journey to find a new home in a divided country. “[ The Night Diary is] a sensitive portrayal of the universal search for identity and the need for a place to call home. Beautifully written, it weaves terror, family and faith into a timeless account of courage and strength.”—Laurie Halse Anderson, The New York Times "A gripping, nuanced story of the human cost of conflict appropriate for both children and adults."— Kirkus Reviews (One of the Best Middle Grade Books of the Century) It's 1947, and India, newly independent of British rule, has been separated into two countries: Pakistan and India. The divide has created much tension between Hindus and Muslims, and hundreds of thousands are killed crossing borders. Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha doesn't know where she belongs, or what her country is anymore. When Papa decides it's too dangerous to stay in what is now Pakistan, Nisha and her family become refugees and embark—first by train, later on foot—to reach her new home. The journey is long, difficult, and dangerous, and after losing her mother as a baby, Nisha can't imagine losing her homeland, too. But even if her country has been ripped apart, Nisha still believes in the possibility of putting herself back together. Told through Nisha's letters to her mother, The Night Diary is a heartfelt story of one girl's search for home, for her own identity...and for a hopeful future.
Veera Hiranandani, author of the Newbery Honor–winning The Night Diary , earned her MFA in creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She is the author of The Whole Story of Half a Girl , a Sydney Taylor Notable Book and a South Asia Book Award finalist, and How to Find What You're Not Looking For , winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award and the New York Historical Society Children's History Book Prize. A former editor at Simon & Schuster, she now teaches in the Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA Program at The Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Reviews
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Diary
Easy but interesting about the split of India and Pakistan from the viewpoint of a little girl.
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Gave this to my 11 yr old granddaughter & she loved it!
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My own forebears are mixed, so these themes in the story really spoke to me in a world that seems to want to divide by tribe everywhere, unaware that we can be different but also united together at the same time - we can be both. Such valuable lessons written in a way that is so cleverly accessible to anyone. Thank you Veera for writing this.
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an amzing book which tells the story of a family main character being nisha who along with her family has to travel across the boder from.pakistan to new india because they are hindus. Nisha and amil are half hindu and half muslim but their muslim mother had passed away when they were born. now they must travel on foot to the boder because they cant live in their homw town anymore which is the new pakistan. Nisha is given a diary on her birthday by kazi their chef and she writes in the diary everyday thinking she is writing to her mother. This book is a must read for ages 9-15.
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Once you start reading this book, if u even try to take a break for 5 to 10 minutes your mind will keep saying let's just read one more page and this will happen continuously. Maybe you will finish the book in 1 day. I love this book. In my opinion this book deserves 5 Stars.
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Interessant