The main character of Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind is Shabanu, who is a twelve year old girl that has to face desert problems, and get married at the age of thirteen. Phulan is another important character, she is Shabanuís only sister who is envied greatly by Shabanu. Other important family members are Mama, Dadi, Hamir, Murad, Sharma and Fatima.

The major problem in this story is that the cousin Phulan is supposed to marry (Hamir) dies a few days before their wedding. Because Phulan has to marry someone at the age of thirteen (religious rule) Phulan marries the cousin Shabanu has her hopes set on marrying Murad. When Shabanu turns thirteen she gets to marry a 50 year old rich guy that already has 4 wives Rahim, lucky her(yeah, right). This problem of Shabanu marrying Rahim is never solved in this book, read the extremely boring sequel (I read half and gave up) and youíll find out that Shabanu starts enjoying being Rahimís wife and her young daughter contributes to her happiness.

Two things I loved about this book were the description, I could see the beautiful desert surrounding as the author told me about it. There was also a lot of interesting facts of Asia intertwined with the plot of the story. Iím sure you donít know how a baby camel is born. I do, now that Iíve read this extraordinary book.