Shadow vs Under the persimmon tree: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Afghan War, Afghanistan, Refugees, War, Children's fiction, Fiction
Shadow
"When Shadow, a bomb-sniffing spaniel, goes missing in the middle of war-torn Afghanistan, his soldier-owner is devastated. Meanwhile, Shadow makes friends with a local Afghan boy, and sees a whole other side of the…
vs
Under the persimmon tree
During the 2001 Afghan War, the lives of Najmal, a young refugee from Kunduz, Afghanistan, and Nusrat, an American-Muslim teacher who is awaiting her huband's return from Mazar-i-Sharif, intersect at a school in…
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Under the persimmon tree has the widest readership — 1456 ratings behind its score.
- Under the persimmon tree runs the darker storyline; Shadow stays the lighter read.
How to choose
Scores by source
| Shadow | Under the persimmon tree | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | — | 3.6 (1456) |
| Hardcover | 3.6 (12) | — |
| Google Books | 5.0 (2) | — |
Reception
| Shadow | Under the persimmon tree | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 12 | 1456 |
| Editions | 16 | 4 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | — |
| Want to read | — | 1136 |
| Reading it now | — | 69 |
| Written reviews | — | 202 |
| Wikipedia attention | 4469 | — |
| Pages | 230 | 296 |