The difficulty in moving the ancient spice—used lavishly in temples, and for embalming and medicine—more than 2,000 miles to the cities of Egypt and the lands of Canaan, Syria, and Babylon caused frankincense to be worth more than gold. Later, the magnificent city of Petra (ancient Edomite lands) in the first and second centuries BCE became the crossroad for caravans of spices, gold, and silk on the Frankincense Trail. Look up images of Petra online and prepare to be amazed. I also have a Pinterest board with pictures from my trip. Please browse!
Regarding funeral customs, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were buried in stone sepulchers according to the Bible, and, of course, in Egypt people were mummified and buried in a variety of pyramids or tombs underground. But many ancient cultures such as the Greeks, Romans, Norse, as well as ancient tribes of Africa, used funeral pyres. Since we don’t know the history of the people of Sariba, or any details about their city or kingdom, I drew on the possible custom of a funeral pyre for King Ephrem for a people who didn’t have caves close at hand, and there is no archeological evidence of pyramids, or burial grounds.
In the case of King Ephrem in Banished, Kadesh and Jayden didn’t have the luxury of time either. Since frankincense was their livelihood and so valuable at this time period, it made sense to me that it would be an honor to use the special wood in the funeral platform and pyre to send their king to the afterlife.
The names I used for the Qara Mountains and the Hijaz Mountains are modern. We don’t know what people in the eighteenth century BCE called these mountain ranges.
As a side note, after Roman times, the world of Sariba and the lands of frankincense disappeared from history. Nobody in the Western world knew they existed until European explorers in the Empty Quarter stumbled upon the bountiful and abundant land on the Arabian Coast in the late nineteenth century.
To see a map of the Forbidden trilogy, please go to my website: www.kimberleygriffithslittle.com or here for a pdf: www.kimberleygriffithslittle.com/forbidden-map.pdf.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’m very lucky to have fantastic people in my life, including people who are patient when dinner isn’t on the table and soup & sandwiches—or pizza—is de rigueur. Again. Although I personally consider pizza a food group. I’m blessed to have talented and creative family and friends who help me with teacher’s guides, book club guides, bookmarks, gorgeous graphics, swag, mailings, and book-launch parties: my sister Kirsten, who is a teacher of extraordinary talent, my daughter Milyssa, and Jan Lewis at authorsidekick.com.
Each book I write is a wild adventure, and a never-ending learning curve. At least I have brilliant people who don’t roll their eyes when they read messy first drafts and give my work insightful feedback with a few brainstorming sessions thrown in. Endless gratitude to my superreader son, Jared, my daughter Milly, and my dear friend and author, Jacqueline Garlick, for reading Banished and being there when the angst and fears become overwhelming. I love you guys!
I’m grateful for the wonderful friends I’ve made over the last fifteen years at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators New Mexico chapter, especially long-time friends Carolee Dean, Caroline Starr Rose, Kersten Hamilton, and Lauren Bjorkman. Thank goodness for weekend retreats in Taos where we can talk all day and night—and throw in a little bit of writing, too.
The launch year of Forbidden has been a thrilling ride of meeting new friends and readers at conferences and bookstores, through Twitter and Facebook, and receiving many wonderful and touching emails. Thank you for all the kind, gushing messages about Forbidden. You make the journey so much brighter. It was a dream come true to travel to Book Expo America and meet my lovely and amazing editor, Karen Chaplin, as well as so many of the people who helped my book along the path of publication. I’m grateful to my editorial director, Rosemary Brosnan; my copy editor, Maya Packard; and all the publicists, marketing folks, and art department geniuses for brilliant and gorgeous covers. Consider yourselves showered with virtual chocolate.
Overflowing thanks go to Adams Literary, for all the wonderful things they’ve brought into my life. Their inspiring optimism, hard work, and friendship makes the writing life a thousand times better. Hugs and kisses, Tracey and Josh!
Thank you, Justin Cook, for the gorgeous book trailers you helped me create. Stunning actress Sela Vave made the perfect Jayden. It was a thrill to film “on location” in the pseudo deserts of Jordan, aka southern Utah. Justin, I’m honored to have known you since your kindergarten days.
Finally, I was blessed to go on a book tour with my dear friend Martina Boone, and a whole bunch of other YA authors I love and admire, as well as my Young Adult Series Insiders cohorts. We traveled from Baltimore to D.C., through Virginia, North and South Carolina, ending at YALLFest in Charleston. It was an incredible road trip filled with great conversations, good food, and lots of map reading and hotel hopping. It was a thrill to meet hundreds of young adult readers and fans. I’m grateful to the many booksellers who generously helped me launch my YA debut, especially Park Road Books in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the fabulous party on Forbidden’s official birthday. Thank you!
I have Pinterest boards about belly dancers and my Middle Eastern trip right here: www.pinterest.com/kimberleylittle.
Please visit my website, www.kimberleygriffithslittle.com, to watch the book trailers and download free teacher’s guides and book club guides—or drop me a note!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo credit DeAnne Payne
KIMBERLEY GRIFFITHS LITTLE was born in San Francisco but now lives in New Mexico with her husband and their three sons. For such award-winning middle grade novels as When the Butterflies Came, The Last Snake Runner, The Healing Spell, and Circle of Secrets, her writing has been praised as “fast-paced and dramatic,” with “characters painted in memorable detail” and “beautifully realized settings.” Kimberley adores anything old and musty with a secret story to tell. She’s stayed in the haunted tower room at Borthwick Castle in Scotland; sailed on the Seine in Paris; ridden a camel in Petra, Jordan; shopped the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul; and spent the night in an old Communist hotel in Bulgaria.
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BOOKS BY KIMBERLEY GRIFFITHS LITTLE
Forbidden
Banished
CREDITS
COVER PHOTOGRAPH © 2015 BY MICHAEL FROST
COPYRIGHT
BANISHED. Copyright © 2016 by Kimberley Griffiths Little. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015950813
ISBN 978-0-06-219501-2 (trade bdg.)
EPub Edition © January 2016 ISBN 9780062195036
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16 17 18 19 20 PC/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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Kimberley Griffiths Little, Banished (Forbidden)
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