A Girl Named Disaster and Dealing With Dragons

While we were at the Green Valley book fair a few weeks ago I bought a book called A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer.  I had never heard of it before but decided to buy it after reading the back cover.  A Girl Named Disaster is about a 12 year-old girl who lives in a traditional village in Mozambique. Her mother was killed by a leopard when Nhamo was a toddler and her father was a drunk and ran away.  She was left to live with her aunt and uncle who didn't like her very much.  They tried to force her to marry a cruel man with two wives, but at the encouragement of her grandmother she ran away. Her plan was to paddle a stolen boat upstream to Zimbabwe, which should only take a few days, to find her father's family. But it "turns into an adventure filled with challenges and danger that spans a year."  I really liked this book. I learned a lot about the culture in traditional Mozambique.

Some other books I bought at the book fair were the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede recommended to me by pricklypear.  I finished the first one.  I really liked it.  The first book is Dealing With Dragons.  It's the story of a young princess named Cimorene who doesn't want to be a proper princess and runs away to live with the dragons.  As you can imagine many adventures follow the princess as she learns to deal with the dragons.  These are an easy read.