The Night Diary

It's 1947, and India is on the verge of independence from Great Britain.  Independence should be a good thing, but violence is escalating around 12-year-old Nisha and her twin brother Amil.  When India breaks into two nations, Pakistan for Muslims and India for Hindus and everyone else, Nisha's family is on the wrong side of the border.

Papa is Hindu, but their mother, who died in childbirth was Muslim.  Doesn't that mean Nisha and Amil should fit everywhere?

When the family finally leaves, the trains are too dangerous so they will need to walk through the desert to India.  Things aren't so bad at first, but eventually, water begins to run low, and tensions between the passing refugees increase.

Nisha didn't want to leave her home, but she doesn't want to die in the desert either.  Every night she shares her feelings in a journal where she writes letters to her mother.  She is shy and has difficulty speaking aloud with anyone except Amil, but when she writes, all her thoughts flow onto the paper.

In this book, inspired by her own father's story, Veera Hiranandani, tells the story of the largest mass migration in history, and the pain and suffering of the people who have to live with decisions made by others.  Hiranandani writes about the violence of the time without becoming too graphic for middle-grade students.  Readers will identify with Nisha as she struggles to understand the events around her, and they will sympathize with her longing for a lost mother she never knew.  Highly recommended.