Secret of the Seventh Gate

by Hazel Spire

A remarkable adventure book and we highly recommend it. --Children’s Bookwatch of the Midwest Book Review Originally from Texas, Jandy Graham is in eighth grade in Iran, where she has lived for three years while her father works on a dam. Her best friend is Maryam, an Iranian classmate. Their excitement about the school play turns to fear when Maryam’s practice tape of her dance music turns out to be an Ayatollah Khomeini speech against the Shah of Iran. Suddenly the girls are swept up into the changing atmosphere of Maryam’s mother begins wearing traditional cover-up women’s clothing; anti-west protest mounts; people begin carrying posters of Khomeini in parades; American ex-patriots become targets and are warned to “go home.” The Shah’s statue is pulled down; and finally, the Shah is deposed by militants. Mr. Graham is ordered to pack his family for home, but his passport is missing and a note on his desk warns that he is to be tried as a spy. The search for the

123 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2001