Dad’s secret mission to rescue his daughter

Shooting Kabul By NH Senzai. Ages 8 to 12. WHEN bad guys take over the government in Fadi’s country, they pressure his father to work for them. Fadi’s father, Habib, decides that the family must flee the country.

Their story sounds a bit like the movie The Sound of Music. But instead of Austria and the Nazis, Habib’s family lives in Afghanistan and the bad guys are the Taliban.

At the heart of both stories is a love of family and country. Fadi’s family left Afghanistan for several years so his father could get an advanced college degree in the US.

When he graduated, Habib was determined to return home to help his fellow Afghans, who had endured years of war.

At first it seemed like a good decision. “When we returned to Afghanistan, the Taliban asked me to help get rid of the country’s vast poppy fields that were used to make drugs,” his father said.

But Habib explained to 12-yearold Fadi and his two sisters that within a few years the Taliban “were suppressing the people they’d helped free”. That meant no schools for girls, no books and no photography, something Fadi loved.

When the Taliban urges Habib to become its ambassador, he realises his family is in danger. It’s time to go.

They sell most of their possessions to pay for a secret trip back to the US. As they scramble to jump on to a truck in the dead of night, something unthinkable happens. Mariam, Fadi’s 6-year-old sister, slips from his grasp and is left behind. The family can’t go back for her.

Fadi blames himself. As he struggles to adapt to life in the US, he doesn’t stop thinking about rescuing Miriam. But how?

A photo contest with a grandprize trip to India could get him close to Afghanistan. If he can get that far, Fadi is sure he will find a way to bring his family back together. – The Washington Post

PLAYTIME: Children play on the street's of Kabul on which Senzai’s book is based.

Kabul Shooting DRAMA: The cover of by author NH Senzai.