
The Teacher of Nomad Land
A World War II Story
Levine Querido c/o Chronicle Books · Print & ebook · September 16, 2025
Winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Page-turning WW2 hidden history masterfully told by award winner Daniel Nayeri 1941.
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- Who it’s for
- A brisk wartime adventure opens onto a less familiar landscape: occupied Iran and its mountain routes.
- Themes
- Sibling bonds and separation, Survival under wartime danger, Finding common ground across cultures
- Pacing
- Fast
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Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved. Most of these share its genre: Wars & Military History.
Max in the Land of LiesAdam Gidwitz60% matchAlso shares Holocaust Stories
Max in the House of SpiesAdam Gidwitz60% matchAlso shares Holocaust Stories
Kareem BetweenShifa Saltagi Safadi55% match
Everything Sad Is Untrue (a True Story)Daniel Nayeri71% matchAlso shares Historical Middle East
Into the FireAnn Brashares, Ben Brashares53% match
Lines of CourageJennifer A. Nielsen62% match
Safiyyah's WarHiba Noor Khan63% matchAlso shares Holocaust Stories
Resist: a Story of D-dayAlan Gratz56% match
For older readers: Song of a Blackbird, This Light Between US: a Novel of World War II, The War Outside
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Start with this bookAbout this book
Winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Page-turning WW2 hidden history masterfully told by award winner Daniel Nayeri 1941. The German armies are storming across Europe. Iran is a neutral country occupied by British forces on one side, Soviet forces on another. Soldiers fill the teahouses of Isfahan. Nazi spies roam the alleyways. Babak and his little sister have just lost their father.
Continue reading
Now orphans, fearing they will be separated, the two devise a plan. Babak will take up his father's old job as a teacher to the nomads. With a chalkboard strapped to Babak's back, and a satchel full of textbooks, the siblings set off to find the nomad tribes as they make their yearly trek across the mountains. On the treacherous journey they meet a Jewish boy, hiding from a Nazi spy. And suddenly, they are all in a race for survival. Against the backdrop of World War II comes an epic adventure in the faraway places. Through the cacophony of soldiers, tanks, and planes, can young hearts of different creeds and nations learn to find a common language? Master storyteller Daniel Nayeri keeps you on the edge of your seat, uncertain to the very end.
History on the Move
A brisk wartime adventure opens onto a less familiar landscape: occupied Iran and its mountain routes.
Come here for
- World War II beyond Europe’s familiar fronts
- Adventure threaded with questions of language and belonging
Expect
- High-stakes travel through a vividly unsettled Iran
- A meeting across faiths and nations
Where it sits
| Historical Middle East | 53% |
|---|---|
| Holocaust Stories | 53% |
| Wars & Military History | 49% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Holocaust for Kids
- Historical Middle East
- War & Military Stories
- Authors
- Daniel Nayeri
- Publisher
- Levine Querido c/o Chronicle Books
- Published
- September 16, 2025
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Sibling bonds and separation · Survival under wartime danger · Finding common ground across cultures
- Reading lane
- Holocaust for Kids