Notes

307, 17 p Cover title Summary: Fifteen-year-old Kambili lives in a beautiful house with her caring family, and attends an exclusive missionary school. She's shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, things are less than perfect in her wealthy Nigerian home. Her papa is fanatically religious and tyrannical at home, and severely punishes Kambili and her older brother, Jaja, if they're not the best in their classes, and hits their mama if she disagrees with him. But everything changes once Kambili and Jaja visit Aunty Ifeoma outside the city. For the first time they experience freedom from their papa. Jaja learns to garden and work with his hands, and Kambili secretly falls in love with a young, charismatic priest. As the country begins to fall apart under a military coup, tension within the family escalates. And shy Kambili must find the strength to keep her family together after her mother commits a desperate act First published: 2004