Foto do autor

Sufiya Ahmed

Autor(a) de Secrets of the Henna Girl

17 Works 108 Membros 6 Reviews 1 Favorited

Séries

Obras de Sufiya Ahmed

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome padrão
Ahmed, Sufiya
Sexo
female
Nacionalidade
India (birth)
UK (naturalized)
País (para mapa)
UK
Locais de residência
Bolton, Lancashire, England, UK
London, England, UK
Ocupação
Advertising
Politics
Children's Author
Pequena biografia
Sufiya Ahmed was born in India and arrived in the UK as a baby. She lived in Bolton, Lancashire, before moving to London where she still lives. Sufiya has worked in advertising and in the House of Commons, but is now a full-time author. In 2010 Sufiya set up the BIBI Foundation, a non-profit organisation, to arrange visits to the Houses of Parliament for diverse and underprivileged school children.

Membros

Resenhas

I enjoyed this story and the way it integrated Hindi tradition. This book would be a good way to include diversity in the classroom and is a great addtion to a classroom library. While showing diveristy and unique cultural elements, this story is a good way to introduce students to Fables.
 
Marcado
Leighann-Rathe | Feb 8, 2021 |
This book is very similar to Rosanne Hawke's "Marrying Ameera". I found it a little bit slow in parts, but it gives an interesting insight into the traditions and culture of Pakistan.

Although the topic of forced marriages is not new, I did like the fact that there were a number of strong female characters including sixteen year-old Zeba herself, Zeba's grandmother, who is well respected in her village, her aunt, who wishes the world for her, and Sehar, another young British girl who has been forced to live in Pakistan and marry a man she has never met, but who remains defiant and is determined to escape. However, I never took to Zeba's mother who seemed cold and heartless to her daughter's plight.

Even though the plot is straight-forward and predictable, "Secrets of the Henna Girl" is still an enjoyable read and deals with an issue that is still occurring around the world.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
HeatherLINC | 1 outra resenha | Jan 23, 2016 |
16 year old Zeba Khan thinks she's just going to Pakistan for the summer with her parents to visit her Nannyma, but when she gets there she finds out that she is there to officially become engaged to her cousin Asif, who she has NO intention of marrying. Her parents transform into people she can hardly recognize, and refuse to consider her happiness or desires. The book does a great job of providing some history without being dry or dull, and Zeba is a character you can't help but root for. Won't tell you what happens, but will tell you that it's a very enjoyable read, and when you occasionally break for a tea break, you'll be surprised to see you're not in Pakistan.… (mais)
 
Marcado
JRlibrary | 1 outra resenha | Mar 16, 2015 |
Schoolgirl Zahra Khan and her fellow pupils at the Khadija Academy set out for Misr (or Egypt, as it is known here in the West) in this third installment of Sufiya Ahmed's series of children's novels chronicling the doings at a progressive Islamic boarding school for girls in Britain. Excited at the prospect of spending time abroad together, Zahra and her best mates - Marya Yusuf, Hannah Joseph and Jobena Leroy - are no sooner embarked on the flight when trouble arises, in the form of toxic school bully and snob, Saira Choudhury, who locks the claustrophobic Jo in the plane's tiny bathroom. The excitement continues in Cairo, as the girls pray at the Al Azhar Mosque, shop at the famous market Khan-e-Khalili, and visit the pyramids; but when Hannah and Jo's efforts to repay Saira in kind for her actions on the flight over go horribly wrong, and the two are confined to the hotel, it looks like the trip might be spoiled. Then the girls, together with some newfound friends from St. Mary's school (also on a school trip in Cairo), discover that a fellow guest at their hotel may be in danger. Can they discover what ails the girl-with-the-sad-face, and if so, will they be able to come up with a plan to help her...?

An engaging continuation of the story begun in Zahra's First Term at the Khadija Academy and Zahra's Great Debate, this slim volume - like the others in the series, it is put out by Ahmed's own Bibi Publishing, as mainstream publishers in the UK would not accept it - was a lot of fun to read. I enjoyed Zahra's Trip to Misr, with its continuation of the Zahra & Co vs. Saira Choudhury rivalry (which looks to only get more interesting in the forthcoming Zahra's Second Year at the Khadija Academy, if the conclusion here is anything to judge by!), and its introduction of new characters, such as Anu Apa, the daughter of Khadija Academy headmistress, Sister Zainab. As with its predecessors, I learned some new things, such as the fact that Allah has ninety-nine names, in the Islamic tradition, or that nasheeds (a cappella songs praising various Islamic figures and themes) are so immensely popular in the Muslim world. There were a few errors - at one point one of the characters describes the pyramids as the oldest structure on earth, when this honor belongs to Newgrange, in the Irish Brú na Bóinne (I had the pleasure of visiting it for the second time, last month) - and I didn't care for the way in which Aunt Sandra's reaction to being told she would look better in a hijab, at the beginning of the book, was dismissed as embarrassing by Zahra. On the other hand, I really liked the way that the girls from the Khadija Academy and from St. Mary's worked together to respond to the crisis involving Mumtaz, and although I wish that the larger impact of modern slavery in the Middle East had been mentioned, was glad to see the issue being raised at all.

Despite these relatively minor criticisms, I did enjoy Zahra's Trip to Misr, which, in addition to presenting an engaging story, seemed a lot better edited that previous installments of the series. I continue to think that it is a shame that such fun stories, featuring contemporary young Muslim girls, aren't more widely available, both to British readers, and to American ones. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the next installment of the Zahra series, and will be hunting down a copy of Ahmed's more serious young adult title, Secrets of the Henna Girl, which marks her entry into the conventional publishing world.
… (mais)
1 vote
Marcado
AbigailAdams26 | Apr 1, 2013 |

Prêmios

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Jenny Cox Author
Jia Liu Illustrator
David Solomons Introduction
Sarwat Chadda Contributor
Poonam Mistry Illustrator
Aviel Basil Illustrator
Fotini Tikkou Illustrator
Louise Warwick Illustrator
Maisie Chan Contributor
Victoria Sandøy Illustrator
Enid Blyton Creator

Estatísticas

Obras
17
Membros
108
Popularidade
#179,297
Avaliação
½ 3.4
Resenhas
6
ISBNs
31
Idiomas
3
Favorito
1

Tabelas & Gráficos