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Summary: Zulaikha, a thirteen-year-old girl in Afghanistan, hopes for peace, now that the Taliban have been driven from her country. She wants to improve her relationship with her stepmother, and hopes one day even to go to school, or perhaps to have her cleft palate repaired. She hates being teased about it. Life begins to change for Zulakjha when she meets with an old woman who teaches her to read, her supportive older sister marries, and Americans come to her village, promising not just new opportunities and dangers, but the chance of surgery to repair her disfiguring cleft palate