Cousins Halima and Atiyah are close companions who share a deep love and affinity for the desert where they live with the Beni Khalid, their Beduin tribe. Under pressure from their uncle, a scholar, Atiyah leaves the "great sand sea" to study in the city of Fez. His loneliness among many in the crowded city is matched by Halima's isolation of a different kind when she is separated from the Beni Khalid during a violent sand storm and is taken in by an enemy tribe. Readers of Temple's book The Ramsay Scallop (Orchard, 1994) will recognize Etienne, a young man whom Atiyah eventually forms a friendship with in Fez. Frances Temple's swift-paced story is set in the year 680 of the Muslim calendar (1302 by the Christian calendar) and gives readers a powerful sense of another place and time, and a rich appreciation for people of another culture. It is a small, tightly woven tapestry of life almost 700 years ago in the desert of the north Africa. At its center is a story of love and loyalty to place that is timeless. Honor Book, 1996 CCBC Newbery Award Discussion (Ages 11-14)