The Servant

 The Servant

Author: Fatima Sharafeddine

Title: The Servant

Genre: Historical Fiction 

Bibliographic Data in MLA format: Sharafeddine, Fatima. Servant. Groundwood, 2017.

Recommended Grade Level(s): 10-12

Number of Pages: 144

*Brief, concise plot description (no more than one paragraph): A young girl named Faten is given by her father into servanthood for a wealthy family where she would be forced to give her father her wages. While she tries to live through a major civil war, she also tries to navigate her teenage life of love and following her dreams to become a nurse. 

Possible Teaching Concerns (may refer back to the text(s) used in class): Compared to the other texts we have read in this class, this one is pretty clean and would be easier to teach. Possible concerns may be the sexualization of May and Faten or the language regarding the war. 

Personal Reaction to/and/or Evaluation of the novel: Personally, I loved the way this novel was written and I thought it was a wonderful novel that I would love to teach to my students. I think that the representation here of the Lebanese author and the Beruit setting would open a lot of student's eyes to worlds that are different than their own. The narration made it easy to read and understand and Faten was a likable character with a strong female motivation and determination to reach her goal of becoming a nurse. 

Canonical work with which to juxtapose this novel & a brief (one paragraph) description of the rationale to connect the 2 works: I would use To Kill a Mockingbird to juxtapose this novel because it takes place after a civil war, somewhat similar to the civil war that is happening in the Servant. While these aren't perfect matches, I think they could be used to demonstrate the during and the aftermath of war and how both create hardships for those who experience them.