Pinkney's language is delicious, worthy of reading and rereading as she creates a vivid picture of the placid family-filled life of 12-year-old Amira and then a life that is tragically devastated by the Janjaweed militia and Amira's escape to a dead-end refugee camp.I can't read realistic fiction that takes place in a real place that is still at war without wanting to know more and this might be an opportunity for students to do the same. I fell in love with Amira, her life, her losses, and her plight and immediately started researching the issues in this area of the world. To start, the refugee camp in the book - Kalma - still exists ten years after this story takes place and seems to be the permanent home of 130,000 displaced refugees. Schools for girls like Kalma have been started there. I also was intrigued by the details about Amira's life on a farm before the Janjaweed burned her home and village - the traditions, the foods, the ways of life--all so vivid because of the well written text. I'd like to read more about this as well.Back to Pinkney's text - it's just stunningly beautiful, filled with poetic, figurative language, written in narrative verse to help the reader access Amira's experience. Just flipping back through the book, I wanted to stop every few pages and read again. This book would be worthy of just enjoying reading, of studying for content, and of studying for language or as a mentor for writing.