SuitabookMahtab's Story
Libby Gleeson
- Reading
- Consider reading together and pausing after emotionally weighty moments, giving your child space to ask questions or talk about what Mahtab is feeling.
- Themes
- Displacement and belonging: Mahtab and her family leave Herat, travel through Pakistan and continue to Australia. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Separation and hope: Mahtab and her family wait and worry about whether they will be reunited with her father. The family’s concern and hope are clear, but the outcome and the story’s fuller treatment of reunion are not established.
- Worth knowing
- The story includes a father believed by Mahtab to be dead, hunger, dread and a prolonged wait. These elements may feel emotionally heavy.