The Laughing Princess of the Desert: The Diary of Sarah's Traveling Companion Canaan, 2091-2066 BC

This is the second book in The Promised Land Diaries series. This series is set in Biblical times and uses a diary format to tell the stories of fictional young girls who encounter notable women of the Bible. Rhoda begins her diary when she is seven years old in the year 2091 BC, as she is about to leave her home of Haran. Her parents are dead, and her older brother, fifteen-year-old Javen, is not yet old enough to provide for Rhoda and their little brother, four-year-old Dibri. The three siblings join the household of Abram and Sarai, who follow the same new belief in one god as Rhoda's father did. As Rhoda struggles to adjust to her new nomadic life, she takes an almost instant liking to Sarai, who is like a mother to all the children in her household, having never been blessed with a child of her own. As Rhoda grows up, she describes in her diary her own struggles as she becomes a young woman, the places she travels, as well as the story of Sarai and Abram, who later become Sarah and Abraham. This book can be enjoyed by young readers interested in a more personal retelling of this Bible story from a young girl's point of view, as well as those who enjoy historical fiction about ancient times, as it contains many details of what life was like for the nomadic people of the desert four thousand years ago.