NAME — Ariana Gainer
AGE — 13
Author: Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
Illustrations by: Stephanie Cooper and Amanda Hall
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Price: $16.00 Pages: 320 (hardcover)
By Ariana Gainer, 11, Y-Press
"When I was born, my mother took one look at me and laughed.“She’s ... dada,” said the doctor, looking surprised.
“I can see that,” my mother replied with a smile. She took me in her arms and gently touched one of the thick clumps of hair growing from my little head. I had dadalocks, and woven inside each one of those clumps was a skinny, light green vine. Contrary to what a lot of people think, these vines didn't sprout directly form my head. Instead, they were more like plants that had attached themselves to my hair as I grew inside my mother's womb. To be born with vines growing in your hair! But that's the nature of dada people, like myself.
What would you do if you were a part of the dadas, a group of people who others make fun of because of your poofy hair?
In the book Zahrah the Windseeker, the main character, Zahrah, has to face this ridicule.
Thirteen-year-old Zahrah Tsami is a member of the dadas, a small and rare group of people who are born with seven long, fat pieces of hair. In the course of this story, Zahrah also discovers that she is a Windseeker. Windseekers are an endangered species of people who can fly. More importantly, Zahrah has to conquer her fear of heights and ignore all the rumors about the Forbidden Greeny Jungle, in order to save her best friend, Dari.
When Zahrah and Dari go into the jungle without their parents' permission, they find that all the bad rumors that they have heard from the village people about the jungle are false. Actually it is an interesting place, not forbidden as its name suggests.
However, some dangers in the Forbidden Greeny Jungle are the bizarre animals.
While sitting by a tree and reading a book, a lethal war snake bites Dari and the only thing that can counteract the creature’s poisonous venom is the egg of an elgort, a dangerous animal that only lives deep in the jungle. In the process of searching for the elgort egg, Zahrah has confabulations with pink frogs, panthers, and other creatures with no zoological equivalent.
These creatures are an example of author Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu’s magnificent imagination. Zahrah the Windseeker is Okorafor-Mbachu’s first novel; however, she has written several short stories. Her short story Windseekers was a finalist in the 2002 Writers of the Future contest (http://www.writersofthefuture.com/index2.htm); she also won third place in the 2001 Hurston/Wright Awards (http://www.hurston-wright.org/index.shtml).
In this first novel, she does such a wonderful job of drawing her audience into the book, and making them think about what they would do if they were in Zahrah’s situation. For example, here is how Zahrah reacts when bitten by a scorpion:
I spent the next day in a nice baobob (cq) tree. Despite the fact that I was able to get a good night’s sleep, I still felt exhausted when morning came.“Just one day,” I told myself. The poison would remain in my blood for months, and I still had the risk of falling asleep anytime my blood pressure got high. I didn't know what I was going to do about this, but I knew I would keep going ...
This excerpt is captivating because the reader, just like Zahrah herself, doesn’t know exactly how far Zahrah has to go to save Dari until the final pages of the book.
Throughout the course of this book, the author gives clues as to what is to come.
Zahrah the Windseeker is intriguing because you never know what the characters will do next. For example, Zahrah happens to encounter a mysterious woman named Nsbidi, who is also a dada. Nsbidi turns out to be the person who helps Zahrah discover her special ability: flying.
There is not anything in this book that I did not like; however, if I were going to rewrite it, I probably would have added more information about Nsbidi, since she was such an appealing character, yet at the same time the lack of information kept the suspense going.
This book is action-packed; Zahrah has to defend her life five times while in the Forbidden Greeny Jungle. To find out if she accomplishes her mission of saving her best friend Dari, you will have to read the book for yourself.
Zahrah the Windseeker is unpredictable and will definitely keep you reading for hours, wanting to see what will happen next. It is virtually impossible to put the book down. There is no profanity, violence or sexuality, and if this book were a movie, I would most likely rate it PG.
I recommend this book for ages 11-13 (sixth through eighth grade), especially girls since most of the main characters are women. On a scale of one to 10, this book deserves a nine. I can’t wait to read Okorafor-Mbachu’s second novel, Ejii, the Shadow Speaker when it is released in the fall of 2007.
Posted 7-18-06
Copyright 2006 Y-Press