Title: The sky of Afghanistan
Author: Ana A, de Eulate
Illustrator: Sonja Wimmer
Publisher: Cuento De Luz (2012)
Pages: 22 (12 w/ text)
Genre: Realistic Fiction
The story of The sky of Afghanistan is told through the perspective of a young girl. She tells an allegory of a kite which she identifies as herself. She flies above the country spreading hope for betterment and peace. Although she mentally sees herself as the kite, as something soaring above, she doesn’t leave the country ever. She stays and wishes for peace.
The first image of the book is the Afghan girl looking up and right-word. This symbolizes the book as a whole as she is leftward positioned (insecure/ uneasy), but rightward facing looking up which shows not only a movement to a better position but one that is more secure and safe. “The sky is full of kites” which are her metaphorical dreams as the girl explicitly says which are also rightward facing looking up, reinforcing the imagery of movement to security and comfort. Most of the pictures of the book share this positioning and movement which is epitomized by the country becoming the kite, symbolizing that the girl’s hopes are embodied in the country, which is moving to a place of security and betterment.
The two images that are disjoined are an image where the girls is playing with her dolls and where she is looking at a book. The former is the only page in which the girls is shown as sad as she holds one doll, that is herself and her country, separate from the rest of the dolls, possibly meaning the rest of the world. The latter image has the young girl looking at a book where light and kites emanate from indicating that education is the key to a bright and imaginative future.
This book could serve as a good starting point for conversations on the Middle-East and the reasons why the young girl has the hopes that she does. However, the book needs to be contextualized as the book itself does not make these issues transparent and there is no author’s note to do this either.