A Girl Made Of Dust

Title: A Girl Made Of Dust
Author: Nathalie Abi-Ezzi
Copyright 2008

Summary:
"A Girl Made Of Dust" is a about an eight-year-old Ruba and her family lived in the village of Ein Douwra outside of Beirut. In their hometown of Lebanon, they're in the midst of a civil war and filled with Israeli invasions. But Ruba has to go through that and he things that are going on within her household. Her mother is pretty much depressed and basically sweeps and cooks to keep her mind occupied. Her brother is slowly getting pulled away from the family because he spends more time with older boys and her father just sits on his chair all day without saying a word and avoids the world and his family. Ruba becomes concerned and decides to try and figure out why her father is in the position that he's in and she uncovers many secrets in her family. And at the same time the war is getting more dangerous and closer to Ruba's town. And it almost seems like there's no hope for Rubs's life, her family or anything. but at the end everything comes together as the family realizes that all they need is their unity to be happy.

Quote:
As I burrowed into the quiet place where the wall met, the floor, i had one last thought: i was glad he'd drunk all that water, and he was no longer a cactus standing motionless in a pot full of dry cracked earth." (page 236)

Reaction:
This line completely caught my attention and made me smile because the whole entire book keeps mentioning a cactus that Mama waters when she can but it always droops towards the floor. The cactus was motif and it stood for the family because Mama tried so hard to unite the family but it didn't seem to ever be working. I loved how in the end Ruba is able to bring the cactus up to show the reader that Papa (the family) would no longer be an undernourished plant.