Shooting Kabul

• Genre: Fiction; middle grade contemporary
• Originally Published: 2010
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 800L; grades 3-7
• Structure/Length: 25 chapters plus epilogue; approx. 288 pages; approx. 6 hours on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: While fleeing Afghanistan with his family in 2001, 11-year-old Fadi loses track of his 6-year-old sister, and she is left behind. After settling in San Francisco, Fadi struggles with his guilt as well as the challenges of fitting in at his new American school.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Discrimination against Muslims; bullying

N. H. Senzai, Author

• Bio: Born in Chicago; grew up speaking two languages; has traveled extensively, including in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Russia, Egypt, and India; at her boarding school in London, was admired by classmates for surreptitiously reading comic books in class; attended UC Berkeley and Columbia University; lives in San Francisco with her family
• Other Works: Saving Kabul Corner (2015; with Shooting Kabul, part of the Kabul Chronicles); Ticket to India (2016); Escape from Aleppo (2020)
• Awards: Middle East Book Award (Middle East Outreach Council; 2010); APALA Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature (2010-2011); Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year (2011); Oregon Battle of the Books List (2015)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• The Taliban’s Transition From Afghanistan’s Savior to Its Oppressor
• Photography as a Means of Connecting Cultures
• 9/11 and Islamophobia in the United States