Child of Dandelions Shenaaz Nanjo friendship/ family/ ethic relations
Front Street 214 pp., 2008 ISBN 978-1-932425-93-2
Richly textured with sensual, colorful vocabulary, this story is set in Uganda during the reign of Dada Amin who has a dream that God told him to expel all Indians from the country. Set against the daily count-down of the ninety day expulsion order, Sabine, the fifteen year-old protagonist of a third generation Indian Ugandan family, begins to realize that this order applies to her and her extended family. Citizenship will not protect them. Her world is shattered when her beloved Uncle is detained, and her relationship with Zena, her best friend, a Ugandan, ends. Sabine must come to terms with her own prejudice as she faces the prejudice of others. Filled with realistic, fully fleshed characters, the tension in this superbly written book never lets up. A stop-your-heart book, Child of Dandelions is about a time in history that should not be overlooked, or forgotten.
