'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.īook Description Paperback. The women, all individualized, exude true warmth, and readers will feel a quiet satisfaction when Lalla joins them. Hadadi, who is Iranian, creates paper collages with a whimsical beauty that work well with the story’s sense of longing. She will certainly make readers think about their preconceived notions thanks to a text that is as thoughtful as it is charming. Cunnane explains in an author’s note that when she first lived in Mauritania, she believed wearing the veil was repressive, but the people’s relaxed and colorful expression of their faith and culture changed her mind.

Only when she tells her mother that I want a malafa so I can pray like you do does she receive her coveted cloth. Neither is Lalla’s desire to transition from a girl to a woman. She tells her sister, Selma, that she wants to wear it to be mysterious Selma laughs and says that isn’t a good enough reason. Lalla wants to wear the malafa for its beauty, but her mother explains that the cloth’s purpose is for more than beauty. It is her wish to wear, like the women around her, a malafa, or airy, colorful cloth worn over clothes and covering the head.

*Starred Review* Lalla lives in Mauritania where the sun burns, the sands shift, and all answer the call to prayer.

Deep in the Sahara by Kelly Cunnane