Far and Beyon'
Gr. 9-12. Botswana's first female High Court judge draws on her experience in the women's rights struggle to tell a searing story of a contemporary family in southern Africa. The focus is on Mora, 17, who has seen two brothers die of AIDS within the last year. Mora, who dropped out of school when she became pregnant and had an abortion, is now back in class, determined to get "far and beyon'" the traditional role of women stuck at home. Her single-parent mom helps her break free, as does her brother, who lives with a white teacher's family and learns foreign ways. Dow neither romanticizes nor demonizes the ancestral tradition. As only an insider can, she shows the ignorance, the abuse, and the corruption of power as well as the richness of extended family and community, and the dynamic roots that give Mora her strength. In a dramatic confrontation, Mora organizes her friends to end the sexual abuse by several teachers in her school. It's a victory that will move teens everywhere who feel silenced by powerful authority. Adults will want to read this, too.Hazel RochmanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved