I am Nujood Age 10 and Divorced / Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui
Three Rivers Press, 2010,176 pp.
Autobiography

I am Nujood Age 10 and Divorced tells about a 10 year-old girl who says yes to everything and obeys the orders of her brothers and her father. Will she learn to finally say no?

Nujood Ali, a little girl that lives in Yemen has the greatest life ever: eating chocolates, playing hide-and-seek, and drawing about sea turtles because she has never seen an ocean before. Her magical world ends when her father, Ali Mohammad al-Ahdel, tells her “you are going to marry a man three times your age Nujood”. At first, she thinks wow that’s a good thing because life was a struggle trying to find something to eat and paying the landlord so they won’t get kicked out of their house. When she left she was a little bit frightened because she was going away from her hometown. Her husband, Faez Ali Thamer, and his mom always say in the books that “if you want a good marriage marry a nine year-old. Nujood thought her wedding day will be just like her sister’s but it wasn’t like that at all. She had to travel with unknown people with her husband. Nujood’s mom taught her to be a good wife. Her life was about to change.

The author informs the reader’s about her struggle of being a child bride and how she felt about it. The writing describes very well with telling about all the things she had to go through for example she tells what Faez (her husband) smells like “an odor of cigarettes, khat (a drug), tobacco, and onions. It affects me because I feel sad for her. The author is very good with this area of study because it happened to her. I completely agree with her arguments, she had a right to run away from her husband because she beat her and he raped her. I found the book motivational because I feel like I can help other girls like Nujood. It has inspired me to do more good in the world. I would recommend this to other teen groups like this, it motivated me and it will motivate others.

This book has left me surprised. I couldn’t imagine that happening to me. I was shocked that she has survived that now and that she has to live with that the rest of her life. I want the other readers to know that the book will blow your mind after you get done reading it.  The book is full of courageous and brave people throughout the whole book.