No laughter here /

Gr. 4-8. Akilah can't wait to start fifth grade with her best friend, Victoria, who has been in Nigeria for the summer. But Victoria returns completely changed: withdrawn, physically unwell, and unable to laugh. A fifth-grade puberty film gives Victoria the words to tell Akilah what has happened to her: I don't have what other girls have. Victoria has survived female circumcision, and Akilah is furious but sworn to secrecy, until her warm, supportive parents discover the truth and expose Victoria's family secret. Of the several recent novels about FGM (female genital mutilation), including Pat Collins' The Fattening Hut BKL N 1 2003, for older readers, Williams-Garcia's story, written in Akilah's colloquial African American voice, is most successful. It combines a richly layered story with accurate, culturally specific information in language that's on-target for the audience, and the author tempers what could have been strident messages with interesting contrasts: Akilah's parents view FGM as an atrocity, even as they revere African culture; Akilah's aunt, who beats her children, raises questions about the forms of brutality ingrained in many families. Then there's Akilah herself, simultaneously confronted with her first menstrual period and the gravity of what has happened to her friend. Readers will have lots of questions for adults after reading this skillfully told, powerful story. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2003 Booklist

"This contemporary tale about the ancient rite of female circumcision will no doubt leave an indelible mark on preteens," PW said. "A disturbing and poignant coming-of-age novel." Ages 12-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Gr 5-8-The friendship between two fifth-grade girls is at the center of this powerful novel, which also deals with the issue of female genital mutilation (FMG). Akilah, a 10-year-old African-American girl from Queens, can't wait for her best friend, Victoria, to come home from a visit to her grandmother in Nigeria. The Victoria who returns home, however, seems like a very different girl-quiet, reserved, and unhappy. Akilah spends the first half of the novel trying to figure out what happened to her friend. Victoria finally spills the truth: her family allowed a doctor to remove her clitoris so she would be a "clean and proper" Nigerian girl. Akilah is outraged, but keeps her friend's secret until her mother finds out by accident. Akilah's mother, also angered, screams at Victoria's mother and causes a rift between the two families. Williams-Garcia provides age-appropriate details without using anatomical terms and addresses some cultural issues and contradictions without overwhelming readers. Mostly the story focuses on the relationship between the two girls and Akilah's sometimes troubled bond with her mother. Because the story is told entirely from Akilah's point of view, the emotional impact of FMG is somewhat muted. However, readers with an interest in human rights and world issues may find the novel compelling, and it can also be appreciated as a story about friendship.-Miranda Doyle, San Francisco Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(Intermediate, Middle School) ""Maybe becoming a lady in Nigeria is like becoming a lady here,"" muses ten-year-old Akilah. ""Sit up straight, cross your legs, smile, and don't beat up boys in the park."" If only that's all there was to it. Akilah's best friend and neighbor, Victoria, and her family are spending the summer in Nigeria, where there will be a ""special celebration to mark her coming-of-age."" When Victoria returns home to Queens, something is wrong: she walks differently, withdraws from her classmates, and barely speaks. After Victoria finally tells Akilah in confidence what happened to her--a ritual clitoridectomy--Akilah takes out her anger in a way that earns her a suspension from school. Akilah is an engaging, even funny (despite the book's title) narrator, if not always a convincing one: she sounds older than ten and telegraphs information that, one presumes, the author feels the reader needs to know. And several story elements strain credulity, including the way that Akilah and Victoria use (and don't use) e-mail and Instant Messaging, and, especially, the notion that Akilah's child-social-worker mother, who gave her own daughter a backyard African naming ceremony, doesn't guess sooner what happened to Victoria. But this will be an eye-opening book for most preteens: as Williams-Garcia writes in her author's note, ""Although FGM is performed on young girls, materials written for young readers about this topic are scarce."" As we leave Akilah and Victoria at novel's end, they are on the brink of clandestine, small-scale activism that one wants to think can change the world. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

This exquisitely written short novel tackles an enormous and sensitive subject. Ten-year-old Akilah waits for her friend Victoria to return to Queens from a summer trip to Victoria's birthplace, Nigeria. But when Victoria returns, she's different. She won't leave her house or even say hello. Eventually she returns to school but gives only one-word answers; she seems wilted and stunned. Where is her laughter, her sharp wit, her academic sparkle? Akilah stays confused until Victoria finally talks: in complete ignorance, she was taken by her family to Nigeria specifically to undergo female genital mutilation. As Akilah, sickened, begins to comprehend, so does the reader. Williams-Garcia pulls no punches: the operation's consequences are clearly explained, not gratuitously but for truth. Eye-opening and grounded solidly in the present, this piece has absolutely non-generic characters and allows a shocking subject various points of view (all black) without sacrificing a moral compass. Unapologetic, fresh, and painful. (author's note) (Fiction. 10-16) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.