Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind
Suzanne Fisher Staples
 Shabanu lives in Cholistan Desert in the Pakistan where they play games near the border of India. She is the second daughter of a peaceful, loving family of camel breeders. Shabanu is on the brink of womanhood; her older sister Phulan is already marriageable, and soon will be married to Hamir, a cousin of their family's. Shabanu is also betrothed to Hamir's brother, Murad. At twelve years old, Shabanu is not interested in marriage; she enjoys tending to the animals and especially teaching tricks to her beloved camels, Mithoo and Xhush Dil and Gulaband, a camel her dadi had recently sold against her will. Before Phulan's wedding, however, disaster strikes: Shabanu and Phulan accidentally stumble upon several strange men in the desert, among them an old, wicked landowner named Nazir, who was known to have murdered Shabanu's cousin, Lal Khan, in the past. Nazir notices Phulan while hunting quail with his brother and nephew. He decides that Phulan will be the prize for whomever bags the most quail. When Shabanu tells her father, he is enraged and goes to tell Nazir that Phulan is betrothed and that Nazir does not have legal ownership of her. Out of anger, Nazir later murders Hamir, whom Phulan was to marry. Phulan has no choice but to marry Hamir's brother, Murad, instead. When Shabanu learns that she must marry Nazir's brother, Rahim-sahib, an old man who already has three wives, to save her family and her sister's new marriage, she must make a choice between running away and obeying the wishes of her family.