Political upheavals like the fall of the Shah of Iran and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism may be analyzed endlessly by scholars, but eyewitness accounts like Hakakian's help us understand what it was like to experience such a revolution firsthand. The documentary filmmaker and poet was born to a prominent Tehran Jewish family in 1966, two years after the Shah had exiled Islamic fundamentalist leader Ayatollah Khomeini. As Jews in a largely Muslim world, the family knew how to live respectfully with their neighbors. With powerful illustrations, Hakakian relates how, in 1979, when the Shah fled and Khomeini returned triumphant, she joined the cheering crowds. Khomeini's revolution seemed liberating, but before long, the grip of the Islamic extremists tightened. Women were put under strict surveillance; books and speech were censored. Anti-Jewish graffiti appeared. As the targeting became more visible-being made to use separate toilets and drinking fountains, being required to identify their businesses as non-Muslim-many Jews emigrated. After Hakakian describes the teacher who risked her job to give her high marks on a "subversive" paper or grips readers with the tale of how she and her teen buddies barely evaded the morality police, readers just want her to leave, too, which her family did, in 1984. Hakakian's story-so reminiscent of the experiences of Jews in Nazi Germany-is haunting. Maps. Agent, Flip Brophy. (Aug.) Forecast: An author tour, regional NPR campaign and Hakakian's media connections will help sales, but the real kicker will be Hakakian's appearance at Jewish book fairs this fall. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Adult/High School-Hakakian recounts her past as a girl growing up in the second largest Jewish community in the Middle East-Tehran-during the takeover of the Ayatollah Khomeini. She paints pictures of a changing Iran, from a land that was immersed in the poetry of life and discovery to one that spoke of militaristic prayer and repression, where Jewish people were once again subject to anti-Semitism and where women were stripped of many of their rights. Hakakian's story is that of an individual changing from innocent child into disillusioned, rebellious teenager. As revolutionary fever overtook her country, she was swept up in, and then engulfed by it. Hakakian's poetic prose is lovely, lyrical, and wry, full of metaphor as well as humor and pain. Teens who are interested in history, poetry, different cultures, or biography should enjoy her memoir.-Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Poet and documentary filmmaker Hakakian presents a lyrically poignant account of her coming-of-age years in revolution-beset Iran. The daughter of an accomplished poet, she and her exuberant extended family were members of Tehran's once vibrant Jewish community. After the shah was ousted and Ayatollah Khomeini returned from a 15-year exile in 1979, life as she and her family knew it unraveled rapidly. Reflecting on growing up both Jewish and female in an increasingly restrictive environment, she is able to offer a unique perspective on the search for spiritual sustenance in a rapidly constricting society. It is both a joy and a privilege to bear witness to one young girl's remarkable emotional and artistic metamorphosis within a stunningly repressive culture. --Margaret Flanagan Copyright 2004 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

In this creatively written book, filmmaker and author Hakakian describes her childhood and adolescence in Iran at a time when the modernizing, secularizing regime of Mohammad Reza Shah ended and the Islamic Republic of Iran under the rule of Muslim clergy began. By now, 26 years after the revolution that brought about this change, many Iranian women have published their accounts of the impact of this transformation, but few of them are members of Iran's many religious and ethnic minorities. For this reason alone, this book serves as a contribution to Iranian studies. Hakakian offers a perspective of the small Jewish community in Tehran and the ways the old and new regimes played roles in its society and culture. Her accounts of students and classrooms in both Jewish and Muslim schools broaden readers' understanding of the process of formal education in Iran. The author offers a chronology, glossary, and two maps, but no other illustrations and no bibliography. Readers could compare this book with Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2003), also told from the perspective of preadolescent and adolescent girls in Iran. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. L. Beck Washington University From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.