82 pages • 2 hours read
Shooting Kabul
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2009
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Introduction
Shooting Kabul
- Genre: Fiction; middle grade contemporary
- Originally Published: 2010
- Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 800L; grades 3-7
- Structure/Length: 25 chapters plus epilogue; approx. 288 pages; approx. 6 hours on audio
- Protagonist and Central Conflict: While fleeing Afghanistan with his family in 2001, 11-year-old Fadi loses track of his 6-year-old sister, and she is left behind. After settling in San Francisco, Fadi struggles with his guilt as well as the challenges of fitting in at his new American school.
- Potential Sensitivity Issues: Discrimination against Muslims; bullying
N. H. Senzai, Author
- Bio: Born in Chicago; grew up speaking two languages; has traveled extensively, including in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Russia, Egypt, and India; at her boarding school in London, was admired by classmates for surreptitiously reading comic books in class; attended UC Berkeley and Columbia University; lives in San Francisco with her family
- Other Works: Saving Kabul Corner (2015; with Shooting Kabul, part of the Kabul Chronicles); Ticket to India (2016); Escape from Aleppo (2020)
- Awards: Middle East Book Award (Middle East Outreach Council; 2010); APALA Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature (2010-2011); Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year (2011); Oregon Battle of the Books List (2015)
CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:
- The Taliban’s Transition From Afghanistan’s Savior to Its Oppressor
- Photography as a Means of Connecting Cultures
- 9/11 and Islamophobia in the United States
