As the youngest of two daughters living in a nomadic family of camel herders in contemporary Pakistan, eleven-year-old Shabanu has enjoyed a great deal of freedom but she knows, as she faces the prospect of marriage in the coming year, she must begin to conform to the rigid role proscribed for women in her culture. In the character of Shabanu, Staples created a spirited individual who internalizes conflict as a means of rebelling against a system in which she is powerless. The highly sensual novel is rich in cultural and geographical details, allowing readers to enter into Shabanu's world and experience her joys and her sorrows. (Age 11 and older)

Life is both sweet and cruel to strong-willed young Shabanu, whose home is the windswept Cholistan Desert of Pakistan. The second daughter in a family with no sons, she’s been allowed freedoms forbidden to most Muslim girls. But when a tragic encounter with a wealthy and powerful landowner ruins the marriage plans of her older sister, Shabanu is called upon to sacrifice everything she’s dreamed of. Should she do what is necessary to uphold her family’s honor—or listen to the stirrings of her own heart?