The Night Diary
A 2019 NEWBERY HONOR BOOK
A Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of the Century
"A gripping, nuanced story of the human cost of conflict appropriate for both children and adults."
-Kirkus, starred review
In the vein of Inside Out and Back Again and The War That Saved My Life comes 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
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 but 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.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of the Century
"A gripping, nuanced story of the human cost of conflict appropriate for both children and adults."
-Kirkus, starred review
In the vein of Inside Out and Back Again and The War That Saved My Life comes 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
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 but 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.
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Community Reviews
An excellent read. This was a topic I studied extensively in my underground degree and (obviously) think is pretty important and often overlooked. I thought it was handled well, especially for the age group, and without placing too much blame. Exactly. This was a crisis unnecessarily caused by "the powers that be," inflamed the fears of the regular people, and therefore caused massive amounts of violence because when people are scared, overwhelmed, and insecure, they lose a lot of rationality, patience, and understanding. It's unfair to punish people who have been pushed into situations. It's like punishing someone for stealing bread when you are the one (society) who has created their situation that is causing them to steal.
And that's very much what the partition of India was like. The leader of the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was rightly concerned that Muslims wouldn't be appropriately listened to or represented in the new India. Perhaps it had something to do with the way Gandhi would just ignore him and run roughshod over his ideas (spoiler alert, I really deeply dislike Gandhi). Gandhi was All Lives Matter. And so Jinnah felt like the only way to have his people adequately represented was to ask for a different state for them to live in. But of course the British have to have a say in it, so they were the ones who drew the new lines. They picked a dude who had NEVER BEEN TO INDIA and who ARBITRARILY drew lines, oftentimes THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF VILLAGES. Sorry, I guess I have feelings. And I'm super white. I only have just studied this. Can you even imagine the feelings of people who lived through this? Who've been passed down stories of this? Add into this decades of this feeling deepening and further brewing with armed conflicts and it makes sense why India and Pakistan still often struggle to get along.
But that's why this book is important. It highlights the hurt but it also highlights how senseless the hurt is. It is all grievous, it is all upsetting, it is all tragic. There is so much understanding and delving into complex feelings. It isn't an answer, but it is some explanation, and beautifully done, to boot. I can't wait to buy this so I can put it on the shelves of my classroom.
And that's very much what the partition of India was like. The leader of the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was rightly concerned that Muslims wouldn't be appropriately listened to or represented in the new India. Perhaps it had something to do with the way Gandhi would just ignore him and run roughshod over his ideas (spoiler alert, I really deeply dislike Gandhi). Gandhi was All Lives Matter. And so Jinnah felt like the only way to have his people adequately represented was to ask for a different state for them to live in. But of course the British have to have a say in it, so they were the ones who drew the new lines. They picked a dude who had NEVER BEEN TO INDIA and who ARBITRARILY drew lines, oftentimes THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF VILLAGES. Sorry, I guess I have feelings. And I'm super white. I only have just studied this. Can you even imagine the feelings of people who lived through this? Who've been passed down stories of this? Add into this decades of this feeling deepening and further brewing with armed conflicts and it makes sense why India and Pakistan still often struggle to get along.
But that's why this book is important. It highlights the hurt but it also highlights how senseless the hurt is. It is all grievous, it is all upsetting, it is all tragic. There is so much understanding and delving into complex feelings. It isn't an answer, but it is some explanation, and beautifully done, to boot. I can't wait to buy this so I can put it on the shelves of my classroom.
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