Words in the Dust (23 page)

Introduction copyright © 2011 by Katherine Paterson
Text copyright © 2011 by Trent Reedy
Translations on
Chapter 5
,
Chapter 10
,
Chapter 12
,
Chapter 15
, and
Chapter 18
copyright © 2011 by Scholastic Inc.

All rights reserved. Published by Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.,
Publishers since 1920
.
SCHOLASTIC
and the
LANTERN LOGO
are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

Ten percent of the author’s proceeds up to $10,000 will be donated to Women for Afghan Women, an organization that advocates for the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. The purchase of this book is not tax-deductible. Women for Afghan Women may be contacted at:
Women for Afghan Women, 158-24 73
^rd
Ave., Fresh Meadows, NY, 11366.
http://www.womenforafghanwomen.org

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Reedy, Trent. • Words in the dust / Trent Reedy. — 1st ed. • p. cm. • Summary: Zulaikha, a thirteen-year-old girl in Afghanistan, faces a series of frightening but exhilarating changes in her life as she defies her father and secretly meets with an old woman who teaches her to read, her older sister gets married, and American troops offer her surgery to fix her disfiguring cleft lip. • ISBN 978-0-545-26125-8 (alk. paper) • [1. Family life — Afghanistan — Fiction. 2. Cleft lip — Fiction. 3. Sex role — Fiction. • 4. Literacy — Fiction. 5. Afghanistan — Fiction.] I. Title. • PZ7.R25423Wo 2011 • [Fic] — dc22 • 2010026160

First edition, January 2011

Cover art © 2011 by Tim O’Brien
Cover design by Elizabeth B. Parisi

e-ISBN 978-0-545-57806-6

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.