The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney

The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Shane Evans. Little, Brown, 2014. 319 pages, including notes and glossary.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10
Maturity Level: 4 (ages 10-12) and up

Bottom Line: Though it deals with the tragic recent history of Darfur, Sudan, The Red Pencil makes an alien culture and distant events accessible for middle-grade readers.

For her 12th birthday, Amira receives a twig. It’s from her father, Danto, who knows exactly what she wants: a perfectly-shaped and pointed, well-balanced instrument to set her soul free to fly: My hand/ holds my twig./ But my twig goes on its own./ My sparrow—that’s what’s inside me:/ flight. It’s the soul of an artist. With her twig Amira draws fleeting pictures in the sand that echo her dream of going to school like her best friend Halima. But Muma scoffs—what school will teach her to be a good wife and grow good okra? Danto understands, but village life doesn’t offer much opportunity. It’s happy enough, though—the birth of a lamb is a big event, even bigger the birth of a baby sister though the baby is born with twisted limbs. Danto welcomes her: He said, “This baby will keep us all strong./ That is the way of a child who comes/ with so much specialness./ We will stretch to meet her.”

But there are rumors of trouble. An armed band called the Janjaweed has been attacking villages for no apparent reason. Then comes the terrible day when death rains from the sky and rides in on horseback, and Dando is no more. Neither is their well-loved village in the southern Darfur province of Sudan. Amira and Muma, with baby Leila on her back, join the flow of refugees that end up in Kalma refugee camp. There Muma sinks into a stupor of hopelessness, where Amira may well follow, except—a relief worker arrives with a bag of supplies. Amira’s share is a single red pencil, a magic wand to open her up to a world of possibilities.

As a window into remote African village life, this verse novel is unsurpassed. Small things tell the story: a twig, a lamb, an ongoing argument about tomatoes. The event that shatters Amira’s world also shatters ours—though not graphic, it may be too intense for sensitive readers and yet too oblique for literal ones. Though Amira is Muslim and Allah is mentioned, her real worldview seems more humanistic, with a dash of tribal animism. The ending seems a bit abrupt and unrealistic, but for patient readers, The Red Pencil  is well worth the read for getting inside a circumstance and a way of life completely alien to ours.

Cautions: Dark (though the overall tone of the novel is optimistic, the village raid is intense), Worldview (Muslim culture, humanistic worldview)

Overall Value: 4.5 (out of 5)

• Moral/worldview value: 3.75
• Artistic value: 5

Categories: Realistic Fiction, Middle Grades, Verse Novel, Multicultural, Discussion Starter*, Life Issues, War

Discussion Questions:

• Literary Element: What details help you enter Amira’s world?
• Thematic Element: What does she want, and how does she get it?
• Worldview Element: How would you comfort her after she’s lost her father and her home?

Cover image from Amazon