Marilyn Courtot (Children's Literature)
This story of the physical and spiritual journey of a young Shona girl will keep readers enthralled until the very last page. Nhamo is faced with an impending marriage to a horrible man who already has a few wives. She decides, with the encouragement of her grandmother, to escape to her father's family in Zimbabwe. It is a trip that should have taken days, but it ends up taking a year. That Nhamo survives and eventually finds a better life for herself is a testament to her courage and character. It is a truly fascinating saga and deserved to be a Newbery Honor book. 1996, Orchard, $19.95. Ages 12 up.

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 1996)
A young girl's spell-binding, treacherous journey from her village in Mozambique to the country of Zimbabwe is the subject of this riveting narrative from Nancy Farmer. Nhamo, a Shona girl of almost 12, flees her village to escape a forced marriage. Her mother died when she was three, but her father and his family are in Zimbabwe and it is there, her maternal grandmother tells Nhamo, that she must go. Her travels are perilous yet transforming. Swept off course into the waters of the great Lake Cabora Bassa, weak and hungry, Nhamo gains strength and skills for survival from the spirits of her Shona ancestors. Later, help comes from a group of people who open Nhamo's eyes to the possibilities that life can hold for her, while members of her father's family answer the questions in her heart. The author, who has lived in both Zimbabwe and Mozambique, has provided readers with a glossary, brief essays on the history of the peoples of Zimbabwe and Mozambique and the belief system of the Shona, and an extensive bibliography to help ground the experience of this tale set in 1981 that shows the juxtaposition and blending of traditional ways and modern life. CCBC categories: Fiction for Teenagers. 1996, A Richard Jackson Book/Orchard, 309 pages, $19.95. Ages 11-14.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1996)
Farmer (Runnery Granary, p. 300, etc.) plunges readers deep into South African social and spiritual worlds in this tale of a Shona girl fleeing an arranged marriage. When the muvuki, the witchfinder, declares that Nhamo must marry an unsavory stranger to propitiate a murder victim's spirit, Nhamo gathers her few possessions and steals away in the village's only boat, intending to float up the Musengezi to Zimbabwe and find the father she's never known. It's a perilous journey that tests every ounce of her strength, will, and ingenuity: She has to find food in seasons fat and lean, cope with loneliness, face threats from everything from (elusive, perhaps metaphysical) leopards to land mines. Gathering discorporate (imaginary? not to her) companions as she goes, Nhamo lives in and off the wild for months, ending up at last, after finding her father's grave and enduring a cold reception from his family, with the congenial scientists at a tsetse fly research station. Although Farmer describes the history and culture of the Shona and other groups in an afterword, she hardly needs to; the cultural backdrop is so skillfully developed in her protagonist's experiences and responses that it will seem as understandable--or, in the case of European and Christian practices, as strange--and immediate to readers as it is to Nhamo. This wonderfully resourceful young woman is surrounded by an equally lively, colorful cast, and by removing many of the borders between human and animal, living and dead, Farmer creates a milieu as vivid and credible as readers' own. As rewarding, and as challenging, as The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm (1994). Glossary, Appendix, Bibliography. 1996, Orchard, $19.95; PLB $20.99. Starred Review. © 1996 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Teri S. Lesesne (The ALAN Review, Spring 1997 (Vol. 24, No. 3))
When a cholera epidemic rampages through her village, Nhamo feels partly to blame. After all, a girl whose name translates as "disaster" must have drawn the sickness. Nhamo's family pledges her in marriage to assuage the evil spirits that have caused the illness. Hers will be a loveless marriage: her husband-to-be is more than twice Nhamo's twelve years of age, and so Nhamo flees, seeking refuge with her long-lost father in Zimbabwe. Her trip is fraught with perils, though her adventure serves to strengthen her resolve to become an independent woman. This absorbing tale provides a satisfying knowledge of the culture and customs of Africa in much the same way as Farmer did in The Ear, the Eye and the Arm. This Newbery Honor book and semifinalist for the National Book Award would pair well with Call It Courage and other such stories. 1996, Orchard Books, 309 pp., $19.95. Ages 12 up.

Janice M. Del Negro (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December 1996 (Vol. 50, No. 4))
With the help of her grandmother, Nhamo (Disaster) flees her village home in Mozambique to escape an undesired marriage. She steals the boat of a dead neighbor and sets out on the Musengezi River for Zimbabwe, hoping to locate her father and his family. Her journey is fraught with peril, both from the natural and spirit worlds: she avoids crocodiles and drowning to face starvation and a killing loneliness that is only alleviated by conversations with her dead mother. Nhamo's dreamlike encounters with the embodied forces of her religious beliefs act as a shamanic vision quest that ultimately results in her acceptance by her powerful grandfather, a traditional healer of her father's family, who declares her heir to his position as nganga. This is a survival story with intense cultural and spiritual overtones. When Farmer stays with the main plot thread-Nhamo's attempting to survive in the wild, without much in the way of equipment or stores-there is a suspenseful edge to the text that carries the reader through an increasingly labored storyline. Once Nhamo is safely in Zimbabwe, the story loses much of its impetus, and the ending has a desultory, tacked-on feeling. An abbreviated history of Zimbabwe and Mozambique, a glossary of Shona and Afrikaans words, an overview of the Shona belief system, and a bibliography are included, as is a map of Nhamo's route. Ad--Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. (c) Copyright 1996, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1996, Jackson/Orchard, 309p, $20.99 and $19.95. Grades 7-12.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1996)
An extraordinarily rich novel set in contemporary Mozambique and Zimbabwe and featuring a most remarkable heroine begins with her life in a traditional, remote village; follows her journey to escape an arranged marriage; and concludes with her experiences in 'civilized' Zimbabwe. Farmer makes the setting real and nonexotic while incorporating information about survival techniques, Shona culture, and Zimbabwean politics. Readers will gladly accompany this courageous girl on her epic odyssey. Category: Fiction. 1996, Watts, 309pp.. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 1: Outstanding, noteworthy in style, content, and/or illustration.