Author: Nada Abdelrahim

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Review: We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Posted on by Nada Abdelrahim

Rachel Lynn Solomon. We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This, June 8, 2021. 336p. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $19.99. (9781534440272). Grades 9-12.

We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon is an opposites attract romance set in the world of weddings and wedding planning with much needed conversations about mental illness.

Protagonist Quinn Berkowitz grew up watching her family (her parent’s and older sister) help create their clients’ dream weddings and happily ever afters, despite seeing her parents go through rough patches in their own relationship. Now eighteen and working part-time for their wedding planning company Borrowed & Blue, Quinn couldn’t be more cynical about love and marriage. Fear of upsetting the family dynamic keeps Quinn from being honest with her family about the expectation of her joining the family business after she graduates college. As Quinn starts to feel the suffocating pressure of the future, she finds an opportunity to do something she actually enjoys and must decide if she will follow her parents’ wishes or share her true feelings with them.

Quinn’s viewpoints on love do not stop her from falling for Tarek, the uber romantic son of the Mansours, wedding caterers that often work with Borrowed & Blue. Tarek’s romantic gestures seem fake and over the top to Quinn; while Tarek can’t understand how Quinn can be so cynical. Despite this friction their growing attraction is undeniable. Both protagonists are also diagnosed with different mental illnesses, Quinn with OCD and Tarek with depression. Solomon seamlessly weaves in Quinn’s OCD and her inability to stop this compulsive behavior–she repeatedly checks her bag for her keys or checks to make sure she locked her car. In one instance Quinn is mocked by a passerby as she engages in this behavior and her internal monologue is one of shame and embarrassment. Though Tarek appears to ghost Quinn after her confession of love, she finds later that this is due to his depression, and that his life is starting to unravel. Along with repairing their relationship Quinn learns to question her assumptions, give a person the benefit of the doubt, and to look outside herself rather than center her own experience and hardship.

It is not until further into the narrative that Tarek and his family’s religion is mentioned. Tarek speaks about being Muslim and the ways in which observance differs within his own family. For example, Tarek’s mother drinks alcohol while his father does not. This conversation between Tarek and Quinn feels natural; Tarek’s explanation provides a relatable example for young adult readers in discussing religion without judgment. After this moment, Tarek’s religion is not brought up again, and in general religion does not play a significant role in the story, either as a point of conflict or interest. Quinn’s religion (Judaism) is mentioned sporadically throughout the book. Though her family is not religiously observant, she notes her older sister becoming more religious as a result of being in a relationship, and Quinn reflects on how practicing religion can vary for each person. 

Realistically flawed, Quinn sometimes veers into self-destructive, immature behavior, and Solomon handles her growth deftly, making her relatable, sympathetic and real, leading readers to root for her, and ultimately find her own way. We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This is a solid read, and more than adequately addresses topics of mental illness and transitions into adulthood.

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Review: ParaNorthern: And the Chaos Bunny A-hop-calypse by Stephanie Cooke and Mari Costa

Posted on by Nada Abdelrahim

Cooke, Stephanie and Costa, Mari. ParaNorthern: And the Chaos Bunny A-hop-calypse, July 2021. 240pp. Etch/Clarion Books, $19.99. (9780358168997). Grades 3 – 7.

Stephanie Cooke’s ParaNorthern (illustrated by Mari Costa) is a humorous and heartfelt graphic novel fit for any age group. When young witch Abby Morgan accidentally opens a portal in the magical realm of North Haven unleashing a horde of chaos bunnies, her initial instinct is to keep the problem to herself. When she realizes that these destructive hares are too big of a job to take care of on her own she must look beyond her worries and accept the help of her family and friends.

With a consistent theme of adolescent independence and relying on others, Abby’s struggles can be relatable to many middle grade readers. Though first resistant to receive help, Abby’s friends–werewolf Gita, pumpkinhead Silas, and ghost Hannah–support her through her fears to help her find the confidence in her witch powers. Costa’s engaging illustrations and palette of fall-like hues of orange, purple, and red complement the dialogue and flow of the narrative. With no real introduction to the characters or setting, the novel reads like a second volume. Readers may find it necessary to read the first volume in order to have foundational knowledge of the world.

The characters of Paranorthern are quite diverse, ethnically and by paranormal standards. Many of the characters appear to have brown skin. Gita is a werewolf and presents as female, and there seems to be a mutual crush between her and Abby. Silas is a pumpkinhead boy trying to convince the other paranormal creatures to stop ingesting pumpkins. Hannah is an undead ghost from another dimension. In a realistic portrayal of the observance of hijab, Hannah wears a headscarf whenever she is outside her own home and does not wear it inside her house. However, though Hannah’s hijab is normalized in illustrations and not constantly called out, she is never explicitly named as Muslim. Throughout the book, Hannah mentions how she and her family are ghosts from another dimension, Hannah is seen chatting with her grandmother through the computer, and magically she needs a charm to be physically present in North Haven’s dimension. These elements hint that Hannah may be part of a diaspora community, living away from her home dimension. But though this parallels real life SWANA diaspora communities in North American or European countries, Hannah’s ethnicity is also never specified, though usage of language implies that they are Arab but terminology is incorrectly used.

With heartwarming, fun, and laugh-out-loud moments, Paranorthern celebrates the power of  friendship in a paranormal world. Readers will cheer for Abby and her friends as they work together to return the Chaos bunnies back to their realm.

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Review: Zara Hossain is Here by Sabina Khan

Posted on by Nada Abdelrahim

Khan, Sabina. Zara Hossain is Here. Scholastic Inc. Apr. 2021. 256p. Tr. $19.95. ISBN 9781773214900. Grades 7-12.

Zara Hossain is Here by Sabina Khan tells the story of Zara, a queer Muslim Pakistani high schooler as she navigates family, love, and racism in Corpus Christi, Texas. Having been in the United States since she was three years old, Zara and her family are comfortable and integrated in their community. However, their lack of green card status keeps her from feeling truly secure. And when Zara speaks out against racism and harassment at the hands of a classmate Tyler, she must deal with the fallout, which quickly escalates to violence against her family. 

Themes and issues explored in the book are important to the overall YA canon, specifically in relation to complex and diverse Muslim representation and all of its intersections–violence against the Muslim community, queerness, inadequacies of the immigration system, and the plethora of other intersecting issues and identities– with varying levels of success. In terms of Muslim representation Zara’s  family practices Islam “culturally,” as examples, not fasting during Ramadan nor observing the five daily prayers. Zara’s parents are understanding and supportive of her bisexual identity and relationship. She experiences backlash from their Pakistani community and her girlfriend Chloe’s Christian family. Phrases in Urdu and Arabic and used throughout the book and the larger cast of characters is equally diverse.

Unfortunately the novel suffers in pacing events and clunky writing, with character development feeling stunted, and lacking emotion and feeling that fails to connect the reader to Zara’s story. Zara’s shifting of thoughts on life impacting decisions, such as moving back to Pakistan, feels flat and not overly contemplative. Zara’s relationship with Chloe feels abrupt in its beginnings and the quick intensity of their feelings comes across as inauthentic. These intense events occur within the first hundred pages, are dragged out in the remainder of the novel, and are too neatly resolved to be believable. Overall a disappointing read that checks the boxes without any real singular impact.

 

 

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Review: Misfit in Love by S.K. Ali

Posted on by Nada Abdelrahim

S.K. Ali. Misfit in Love, May. 2021. 320p. Salaam Reads / Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $19.99. (9781534442757). Grades 9-12.

Misfit in Love, the sequel to S.K. Ali’s debut YA novel Saints and Misfits, is heartwarmingly funny, poignant and thoughtful, and contains a surprise or two. Returning to Egyptian and Indian American Janna’s story, this time for the wedding of her older brother, readers find Janna healing from the trauma she experienced in the last book and  ready for romance and new beginnings. But of course things don’t go as she expects, and when she finds out that her father doesn’t approve of her love interest, Nuah, she is shaken.

Told through the events and cultural festivities surrounding a supposedly joyous wedding occasion, Ali brings to the forefront the prominent and often sidelined racial and cultural hegemony and supremacy found in the Muslim community and beyond. The revelations and lessons that occur for Janna, her family, and friends creates a dynamic that has new or returning readers questioning these dynamics in their own spaces in a way that is authentic and palpable.  Throughout the story there are a number of instances in which Janna observes the characters around her create conflict, express disdain, or act negatively in regards to race or cultural identity. We see this with the older Arab auntie who expresses her distaste at the amount of South Asian elements during the wedding weekend. Or the way Janna’s father, a South Asian, recalls his experiencing racism from Janna’s Arab maternal family when he was in a relationship with her mother. Ali uses that narrative to show the hierarchical nature of hegemony, and how despite being on the receiving end of racism at one point, when Janna’s father realizes her budding feelings for long time friend Nuah, a Black Muslim, his initial reaction is racist and classist. 

Janna calls out her father for his ignorance over multiple instances, and Ali creates a realistic portrayal of Janna’s reactions, internal conflict, and subsequent growth. There is also a distinct call to action that allows Janna and her family to move past performative allyship⁠— at one point Janna refers to her father’s copy of The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley, to tangible change. 

Overall, these topics fit pretty well into the novel’s story without being too jarring or cliche. The author makes an important note in her acknowledgement at the end of the novel, expressing how she wants to remain considerate of the Black character’s–Nuah and Khadija–perspectives,  and that she does not speak in their voices. Ali names MuslimARC as a vital resource in helping her write these characters respectfully in her novel and urges the Muslim community and the non-Black Muslim community in particular to embrace anti-racist principles as Islamic principles, and to question cultural supremacy and hegemony, its prevalence and how it manifests within the Muslim community.

Love and relationships in many stages are discussed at length in this novel, and Ali successfully presents diverse romantic relationships in the Muslim community. For instance, there is the young uncertain love that Janna experiences, the marriage of her older brother, the budding romance of Janna’s mother, and more. These scenarios are natural to the story and also provide different ways love and relationships come to develop without judgment or comparison. Each relationship is valid and unique. As Janna navigates her uncertain relationship and feelings, she confides in different friends and family members, who provide her a safe space to express her emotions. These positive representations of both female and male Muslim characters supporting Janna in her journey to understanding herself provide a much needed alternative to the strict and angry Muslim stereotypes that permeate mainstream pop culture. With the backdrop of this story being Janna’s older brother’s marriage, Ali gets the chance to present a very important cultural milestone in a non-exoticized or misrepresentative light. Readers unfamiliar with Muslim marriage practices can learn about some customs, while other readers that belong to these communities have a YA novel that they can feel connected to.

Janna’s experience with assault in the previous book is mentioned briefly and the reader learns that Janna sought the help of professionals to work through and heal from the trauma. Mental health is a pretty taboo topic amongst many cultures in the Muslim community, so Ali creates a stigma free association for the characters in the book, making sure to address Janna’s past trauma and the healing she needed to go through to find herself at a better place. 

Ali’s characters are nuanced and authentic, the protagonist Janna especially is complex and interesting, as a Muslim teen her religion, relationship conflicts, and personality convey a seamless narrative that avoids didacticism. Small details like Janna nonchalantly talking about her scarf and her style, the female only party thrown for her sister-in-law, and inclusion of prayer give the story depth and reflections of Muslim life in a really natural way. At the same time, Misfit in Love will satisfy any YA reader looking for a realistic romantic comedy, while touching upon greater societal issues of race that all readers need to examine in all the spaces they are in.

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Review: The Awakening of Malcolm X

Posted on by Nada Abdelrahim

Shabazz, Ilyasah & Jackson, Tiffany D. The Awakening of Malcolm X, Jan. 2021. 336p. Macmillan/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $17.99. (9780374313296). Grades 6-12.

Written by one of his daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz, and the author Tiffany D. Jackson, The Awakening of Malcolm X is a young adult fiction novel about the life of Malcolm X during his time in prison. In the 1940’s, a young Malcolm is sentenced to eight to ten years in prison after stealing a watch. In prison, he experiences firsthand the violence of the prison industrial complex. Readers follow Malcolm in the first-person in his early years as an incarcerated Black man, and on his journey of self-education and self-rediscovery despite these obstacles. 

This time in Malcolm’s life is made accessible to the young adult reader, with themes that are relevant to their lives including the question of identity, belonging, worth, and purpose. Shabazz depicts Malcolm’s distrust and anger and his jaded attitude toward all religions and his future at the start of the novel. Readers will relate to the conflicting societal messages Malcolm receives, and reflect on issues of race and inequity that continue to present day. As the story moves forward, Malcolm is transferred to another prison, where he is empowered and motivated to find his truth through books and self-reflection. The violent experiences in prison are not sugar coated: like the way prisoners are kept in solitary confinement for extended periods of time, prison guards using slurs and physical violence, and the description of the inhumane cells the prisoners stay in.

As the story is set in prison, most of the characters around Malcolm are prisoners as well, and are predominantly Black. His family is featured prominently in the story, with his siblings and parents interweaving in the narrative with flashbacks from his life as a child. It is the Black characters that have a positive effect on his life. There is a range of personalities that are well-developed and multi-dimensional, even when the characters that appear only for a short time. White characters are mostly authority figures, with some white prisoners who appear later in the book. Though many white characters are primarily depicted negatively, their representation is not overdone; instead, the descriptions of these characters is an accurate portrayal of how Malcolm may have experienced his interactions with whites throughout his time in prison. As the work seeks to accurately capture racism and Malcolm’s experiences, the n-word is used openly throughout the book. 

A significant part of Malcolm’s identity, and large part of his change seen in the novel, comes from his introduction to the religion of Islam and the Nation of Islam (NOI) in particular. Shabazz does not go into much detail about the tenets of the NOI; she just includes basic religious principles and beliefs that provide necessary context for the reader. The inclusion of religion, and Malcolm’s understanding of it, never becomes preachy. It serves only to bring to life Malcolm’s evolution, and the NOI’s role in that time of his life. The foreshadowing of possible conflict of the NOI in Malcolm’s life is also there, but no outright criticism. 

Overall, The Awakening of Malcolm X is an essential read for those looking to learn about Malcolm’s story and  the important voices of the Civil Rights Movement in an accessible way. Readers are provided with an inspirational yet truthful presentation of how circumstances, support, and self-motivation may push us out of feelings of darkness or being lost.

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Review: Home Is Not a Country

Posted on by Nada Abdelrahim

Elhillo, Safia. Home Is Not a Country. 2021. 224p. Make Me a World, $17.99. (9780593177051). Grades 8-12

Written in verse, Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo is a novel in four parts of a young woman, contextually indicated to be Sudanese American, in the diaspora struggling to place her identity within the world around her.

Nima sees herself as a shadow of the girl “she could have been,” if only she was given the name Yasmeen instead of Nima. Elhillo navigates the literal and metaphysical power of a name and the effect it has on a person’s identity, constructing the story from this inadequacy felt by Nima. Nima’s family, community, language and physical traits also become a source of conflict for her, building upon this idea of identity, questioning belonging, and being one’s own biggest enemy. There is culture, religion, history, and trauma behind Nima’s name, and readers follow her journey in learning about its origin.

In the first two parts of the novel especially, these identity markers are a source of confusion and sometimes disdain for the main character. As this conflict hits the peak of its extremity, Elhillo introduces mystical and fantastical elements to the story, one in which Nima further explores her history and comes to terms with what her name is, where she comes from, and the sacrifices of those around her that she thought she knew. The last two parts of this novel are the real standouts: the whimsy, the unexpected turn of events, the exceptional and lyrical use of language as we follow along the story. Elhillo creates a metaphor for searching for your history and learning about your past in a most unexpected way that really elevates this novel. As this story is written in verse, the pace moves quickly as the reader follows Nima into her hole of self-doubt and dwindling self-worth. At first the poems feel like a collection, connected but not necessarily a linear telling. But as the novel moves along in Nima’s journey the poems start to feel more like a continuous story.

Digital edition with Arabic text Physical book with Arabic text, pages 14-15Nima and her family’s Muslim and Sudanese background is hinted at throughout the novel, and there is Arabic script used in the text. Dialogue and commentary from other characters are in italics and ampersands are used in place of the word “and.” Set against the backdrop of 9/11, Nima and her small community’s religion, brown skin, and assumed foreignness, make them a target of Islamophobia. Nima notices how this heightened awareness of growing hostilities push her mother to change the manner in which she observes hijab as a way of avoiding violence and discrimination. Her childhood friend, also a Sudanese American Muslim, is brutally attacked. In these moments, so natural to the story, readers are given a contextual and historic representation of what it was like to be visibly Muslim at that time. These two points of friction–Nima’s internal struggle and the outside discrimination, flow in tandem with each other, and at times, overlap as points of conflict. They also play into the possibilities and feelings of loss in the could-have-beens often felt by those removed from their heritage countries, and for Nima’s place and time. 

The what-could-have-beens always tend to seem like the greener pasture, but only because we never have a chance to actually live those alternate realities. The ability for Nima to explore her sense of self and intergenerational trauma through this existential journey, stories less often written or recognized for characters, and particularly women of color, makes this novel an important read. Readers who relate to Nima’s cultural and/or religious background tend to live with certain expectations that come with belonging to the diaspora. This also may include feeling disconnected to the characteristics and cultural practices, especially when faced with heightened discrimination or isolation. Nima’s journey, explored through this mystical magical realism, encourages readers to go on one of their own and explore that history which seems far away or out-of-reach. This story also examines the mystique of a parent that their children may find hard to bridge, that, when and if it is explored, humanizes them and paints a clearer picture of why they are the way they are. Elhillo creates a story that considers this unknown territory and gives young adult readers a moment to reflect on how their own generational histories may hold more revelation than they are aware of.

Home is Not a Country beautifully explores a young person’s struggle in finding her identity as well as the journey to her self-acceptance–of herself, her history and her name.

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Review: The Power of Style

Posted on by Nada Abdelrahim

The Power of Style book cover

Allaire, Christian. The Power of Style, Apr. 2021. 96p. Annick Press, $19.95. (9781773214900). Grades 7-12

Self-described fashion-obsessed author of The Power of Style, Christian Allaire, presents fashion through a lens of inclusion.  Allaire, Indigenous Ojibwe from the Nipissing First Nation Reserve in Ontario, never saw anyone that looked like him in the mainstream fashion spaces. Now as fashion and style writer for Vogue, he hopes to change that. His book is a celebration of style and identity, cultural activism and empowerment, making space for those that are historically underrepresented and erased.

Colorful and bold, young adult readers can explore and learn about many different expressions of identity and fashion, and image presentations associated with them. It is divided into six sections: Sewing Traditions (focusing on ribbon work by Indigenous designers from several nations), Hair (especially in Black and Indigenous communities as an act of love and resistance), Cosplay and Body Positivity, Headcoverings, High Heels (for men, and in queer fashion), and Makeup. Throughout each chapter Allaire provides space for contributors to write their own thoughts while giving readers more context to the subject matter via definitions, infographics, and photographs. The sections are simple, but do well as a first snapshot or introduction to these topics. 

In the fourth section titled Head Strong, Allaire discusses Muslim women and the hijab (or headscarf). The definitions for hijab and modest fashion are presented on the same page early on in the section. This gives readers an idea of how these concepts intersect while also showing that modest fashion is a concept that falls outside of religion, which is a pretty important distinction to have in a book like this. Head Strong features two main Muslim women who identify as hijabi. The first is Haute Hijab designer and owner, Melanie Elturk. The second is Leah Vernon, fashion influencer, model, and author of Unashamed: Musings of a Fat, Black Muslim. Allaire includes a discussion about hijab on the runway as well as in professional sports. This section includes a diversity of images and contributors of Muslim women; there is no one image or fashion that is highlighted as to what “hijabi” looks like. Also, when discussing performance hijabs, instead of naming large corporations, Allaire highlights a small Muslim owned brand. This chapter is a great introduction to hijabi fashion and frames a moment for Muslims and non-Muslims alike to learn about its different aspects and expressions.Fashion is quite personal and connects many aspects of a person’s identity. Allaire creates the opportunity for minoritized groups to see the fashion that embraces identity and cultural expressions within a book, while opening the metaphorical door for readers to learn about other fashions and identities. The Power of Style is a powerful and highly anticipated release that should be in every young adult nonfiction collection.