The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney is a historical fiction poem about a girl who has many life struggles but finds joy in a single pencil. This empowering story takes place in early 2003 in western Sudan, a country in northeast Africa. It tells the compelling story of a girl named Amira and her family. They lived on a farm in south Darfur, Africa. Amira has lived there her whole life with her best friend Gamal and little sister Leila.

Amira and Leila’s parents told them about the Janjaweed in case they ever came. The Janjaweed are bad. They go into farms and towns to terrorize, steal, and kill. One quiet night in their town, the Janjaweed led Amira and her family to flee to a concentration camp. One thing Amira loved was drawing. When she lived on her farm, she always drew in the sand with a stick. Upon arriving at the camp, she felt upset and overwhelmed.

Once they got there, a woman named Miss Sabine arrived with two bags full of notebooks and pencils. Each child in the camp receives a pencil and notebook. Once Amira got her notebook and pencil, she learned new things she didn’t know before, considering what else was possible.

This novel helps readers understand the struggles of people in Africa and other countries. It shows how a simple thing that readers may have can make a big impact on a child from Sudan and other places in the world. Some may find the plot interesting because of how different someone’s life can be and all the difficulties the character Amira went through. The characters are all very different, which makes the novel unique. It’s different from an average novel because it's written in a poem style. It can and can help depict different images and how characters express their emotions.

When buying a book, do not leave this one back on the shelf.