The Night Diary

A children’s book that adults will enjoy, The Night Diary is the story of twelve-year-old Nisha, half-Muslim, half-Hindu, and caught up in the tragedy of partition – where Pakistan and India separated in the aftermath of India’s independence from Britain.

Nisha is about to experience the disorientation and fear that comes when a family decides to flee for safety. Nisha’s story is told through a series of letters to her mother as she leaves what is now Pakistan, to find a home and an identity. Her predicament – that of a desperate search not just for physical safety but for… show more.

I loved learning about the 1947 partition of India through the story of Nisha and her twin brother Amil who, as half-Hindu, half-Muslim children, embody the pain and difficulty of this period of history.

As a writer who also has a mixed religious and ethnic identity, I appreciated the way Hiranandani didn’t simplify this history and spoke to the challenge of identity in a world that is increasingly made up of people of hybrid identities that stretch across sometimes bitter historic lines.

This story is a great read-aloud that gives families a broader global perspective.

This story had an incredible cast of characters, and it made me appreciate that I can walk into my kitchen and drink water anytime.

I have access to food and my family and I are in a safe environment. It's these things that we take for granted that are the most precious and stories like these make you realize how lucky we are.  

In the vein of The Diary of Anne Frank, this story follows a Hindu Indian girl’s journal entries to her deceased mother as her splintered family escapes newly freed India in 1947. More than that, it’s a story of lost and found—friendship, family, home, and, most importantly, a voice. A touching story middle grade readers of all ages will enjoy.

An epistolary novel about a half-Muslim, half-Hindu Nisha, who must face her world falling apart after the India-Pakistan partition in 1947. I thought Nisha’s writing was literary and lyrical while also fast-paced since it is written in letters. A powerful and important addition to the historical fiction genre, especially for young readers.

Another book that had me in tears more than once, The Night Diary is a beautifully crafted story told in the background of India’s partition. It’s a book about the hard choices people make in hopes of a better future, through the eyes of twelve-year-old Nisha, as she reflects on the loss of her old life, her country, and the search for meaning. Nisha is a heroine worth reading and learning from. I sure learn a lot from this book, and I hope you do too!

This book mirrors my mother’s flight from her hometown of Sinuiju in northern Korea to the south prior to the outbreak of the Korean War. The year was 1947. On a night full of moon and fear, my mother climbed over treacherous mountains and crossed a dark river in her quest for freedom, evading armed communist soldiers along the way. In The Night Diary, it’s the same year, 1947, but a different country and a different girl, and yet a similar story of family courage, of seeking refuge from violence. Young Nisha writes in her diary addressing each entry… show more.

Go back in time to 1947. India, newly independent from British rule, has been separated into two countries-Pakistan and India. I admit that I didn’t know a lot about the partition other than the divide it caused between Hindus and Muslims and the hundreds of thousands of people that were killed, but there was so much more I learned about the struggles people faced during the partition. I have a signed copy of the book in my classroom library and a few of my students had read the book and told me I should add it to my “reading pile”.… show more.