YA Fiction

Amelia Bloomer List 2014, ALA, for books with significant feminist content

Notable Books for a Global Society 2014, IRA

Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2014

Finalist, Amelia Walden award for YA fiction, 2014, NCTE

Know that there are many words behind the few on this paper…

Fifteen-year-old Nawra lives in Darfur, Sudan, in a camp for refugees displaced by the Janjaweed’s trail of murder and destruction. Nawra cannot read or write, but when a nonprofit organization called Save the Girls pairs her with an American donor, Nawra dictates her thank-you letters. Putting her experiences into words begins to free her from her devastating past—and to brighten the path to her future.

K.C. is an American teenager from Richmond, Virginia, who hates reading and writing—or anything that smacks of school. But as Nawra pours grief and joy into her letters, she inspires K.C. to see beyond her own struggles. And as K.C. opens her heart in her responses to Nawra, she becomes both a dedicated friend and a passionate activist for Darfur.

In this poetic tale of unlikely sisterhood, two girls teach each other compassion and share a remarkable bond that bridges two continents.

~from the Simon & Schuster page

Simon & Schuster Curriculum Guide

People have asked, What inspired you to write The Milk of Birds? During college, I took a year off and spent seven months traveling solo in India, Nepal, and China. That long-ago adventure changed my sense of citizenship; I felt I had a stake in the world as well as in the United States.