Excellent story about learning to look beyond the surface and find peace with your imagined enemies.
SPL Global Reading Challenge 2016 ( )

Cute but a bit too didactic for me in places (that's what I get for reading YA, I guess). It got more interesting once the mystery-solving started. ( )

twelve-year-old Ariana couldn’t be more different from her cousin Laila, who just arrived from Afghanistan with her family. Laila is a proper, ladylike Afghan girl, one who can cook, sew, sing, and who is well versed in Pukhtun culture and manners. Arianna resents her and let Laila know ths.. Laila and Ariana are sharing a tiny bedroom in their cramped Fremont townhouse, and when school starts becomes close with Mariam Nurzai, Ariana’s best friend.

a rival Afghan grocery grocery store opens near Ariana’s family store, reigniting a decades-old feud tracing back to Afghanistan. arianna, Laila and Miriam, and their newfound friend/enemy Wali, join their investigative talents to help the families find a lasting peace before it destroys both businesses and everything their parents have worked for.

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The Pukhtun code of honor comes into play when two competing Afghan grocers in the Bay Area accuse the other of sabotage after both stores are vandalized. Ariana and Wali, the children of the shop owners, embark on solving the mystery of who is really involved. This culturally specific novel provides young readers a window on Afghan culture, the impacts on family of current events in the home country, plus the universal struggle of immigrants striving to succeed in America. ( )

Companion book to Shootin Kabul, when many of the characters from the book are incorporated into this story. Learn how 3 young students work together to solve the mystery as to why their families are in a feud. ( )