Tag: scholastic

Ms Marvel: Stretched Thin by Nadia Shammas and Nabi H. Ali

Ms Marvel: Stretched Thin by Nadia Shammas and Nabi H. Ali
Scholastic/Graphic

Kamala Khan (a.k.a. Ms. Marvel) is stretched too thin-literally. She’s having a hard time balancing schoolwork with being a good friend, being there for her family, becoming the best fanfic writer this side of the Hudson River . . . and, you know, becoming a Super Hero. She’s tired and just barely keeping control, BUT she’s handling it. Totally.

But when a mysterious robot tries to infiltrate Avengers Tower, it’ll be up to Ms. Marvel to (again, literally) pull herself together, learn to ask for help, and fix the mess she’s made before anyone gets hurt!

Cover via ARC and summary via Goodreads

Posted in Books, Reviews

Review: The Candle and the Flame

Posted on by Mahasin Abuwi Aleem

This review was originally published in School Library Journal, May 1, 2019.

The Candle and the Flame

by Nafiza AZAD
416p. glossary. Scholastic. May 2019. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781338306040.

Gr 7 Up—Eighteen-year-old Fatima is a human who carries the fire of the djinn within her. She’s a devout Muslim raised by her adopted Hindu family in Noor, a city along the Silk Road, when her parents and all but two other of the city’s inhabitants are slain in a massacre by the Shayateen, a class of djinn who thrive on chaos and destruction. Noor emerges from the ashes to become a vibrant multicultural city where Muslims, Hindus, and others live together in a brokered peace maintained by human rule and the protection of the Ifrit Djinn, who value order and reason. There are signs, however, that this peace is under serious threat. When Fatima’s presence at the violent death of Firdaus, a powerful Ifrit, transforms her into Fatima Ghazala, she is changed in ways that upend her identity, threaten her relationships, and thrust her into the center of the city’s ruling class. Under the protection of the Ifrit’s leader, Zulfikar, Fatima finds herself grappling with feelings she’s never had before. In this sophisticated debut novel, Azad combines Islamic concepts and Middle Eastern mythology with a variety of other traditions to create a magical treatise on identity, community, friendship, and love. Readers will identify with female characters who struggle against limiting societal expectations. The themes of trauma and grief are treated with care. Azad’s vivid depiction of the details of Noor’s sights and sounds make the city come alive. Back matter includes a glossary of terms. Readers may also enjoy the forthcoming title We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal.

VERDICT A moving commentary on gender roles, identity, love, and loss, and a first purchase for school and public libraries.
Reviewed by Mahasin A. Aleem, Oakland Public Library, CA , May 01, 2019

Barakah Beats by Maleeha Siddiqui

Barakah Beats by Maleeha Siddiqui
Scholastic Press

Barakah Beats

Twelve-year-old Nimra Sharif has spent her whole life in Islamic school, but her grandparents – who have never quite seen eye-to-eye with her parents on how to raise her – think it’s time she goes to “real school.” Nimra’s nervous, but as long as she has Jenna, her best friend who already goes to public school, plus with her trusty sketchbooks, she figures she can take on just about anything.

But middle school sucks. The teachers are mean, the schedule is confusing, and Jenna starts giving hijab-wearing Nimra the cold shoulder around the other kids. Desperate to fit in and get back in Jenna’s good graces, Nimra accepts an unlikely invitation to join the school’s popular 8th-grade boy band, Barakah Beats. The only problem is, Nimra was taught that music isn’t allowed in Islam, and she’s pretty sure her parents would be disappointed if they found out. So she devises a simple plan: join the band, win Jenna back, then quietly drop out before her parents find out.

But dropping out of the band proves harder than expected. Not only is her plan to get Jenna back working, but Nimra really likes hanging out with the band—they value her contributions and respect how important her faith is to her. Then Barakah Beats signs up for a talent show to benefit refugees, and Nimra’s lies start to unravel. With the show only a few weeks away and Jenna’ friendship hanging in the balance, Nimra has to decide if winning her friend back is worth giving up everything—and everyone—she cares about.

Barakah Beats is a middle-grade contemporary novel that will appeal to fans of Hena Khan’s Amina’s Voice and Celia C. Pérez’s The First Rule of Punk.

Cover image and summary via Goodreads

The Sinister Substitute (Marvel Avengers Assembly, #2) by Preeti Chhibber

The Sinister Substitute (Marvel Avengers Assembly, #2) by Preeti Chhibber
Illustrated by James Lancett
Scholastic

Kamala, Doreen, and Miles are back at Avengers Assembly for a new semester! When Captain Marvel announces she’s adding staff to the school, the students aren’t sure who could possibly join — but it looks like Cap went above and beyond, and the school is full of new teachers!

With all these new teachers, it’s hard to keep track of who’s teaching what, and what they’re supposed to be learning. And some of these teachers are really not acting like heroes at all, but more like… super-villains? All that new staff has created a lot of confusion that is ripe for exploiting! Someone is impersonating students and teachers, using lies and deception to break up the new generation of heroes. Can Doreen and her friends get to the bottom of this scandal? Or will this be the end of the Avengers Assembly?

Cover image and summary via Scholastic

Posted in Books, Reviews

Review: Orientation (Avengers Assembly, Volume #1)

Posted on by hijabilibrarians

Chhibber, Preeti. Orientation (Marvel: Avengers Assembly, Volume 1). Illus. by James Lancett. 2020. 176p. Scholastic, $13.99.  (9781338587258). Gr. 3-6.

Created by editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker, writer G. Willow Wilson, and artists Adrian Alphona and Jamie McKelvie, Kamala was just an average Pakistani American kid from New Jersey when the Terrigan Mist activated her dormant inhuman cells and turned her into a polymorph, with the ability to lengthen her arms and legs and change size. Inspired by Captain Marvel, Kamala takes on the name Ms. Marvel and starts fighting crime…and destroys a lot of property. And it’s obvious, especially to some senior, more established super heroes that these younger ones need some serious training.

Kamala is ecstatic to be recruited into the Avengers Academy after school program by none other than her hero and fanfic favorite, Captain Marvel. At the academy she is put on a team with Miles Morales (Spiderman) and Squirrel Girl (Doreen Green), and they are taught superhero skills by Beast, liability and other legal responsibilities by She-Hulk. Kamala even takes special classes on controlling her size powers from Ant Man. The bond between the three young supers is lovely, especially when Miles and Doreen find out that Kamala is the author of their much beloved fanfic, and the conversations between the mentor superheroes, like Peter Parker and Miles, is adorable and a lovely revisit for fans of Into the Spider-verse. And though she keeps her identity secret from her family (at least in this iteration) readers will also meet Kamala’s parents and her brother, her friends, including Muslim friend Nakia, and the imam at Kamala’s masjid, Sheikh Abdullah. There are references to hadith, Qur’an and Islamic traditions in how Kamala receives advice and guides her actions as a super hero.

The ultimate test of their powers and ability to work together as a team will be the academic decathlon where student teams will compete and complete a set of challenges. Of course, there are some characters with ill intentions and it’s up to our team to stop them. Chhibber and Lancett’s narrative told in comic form, illustrated text messages, blog posts, newspaper clippings, journal entries, and more, make the reading experience differentiated, but in a way that is appealing

 to young readers and familiar for fans of comics and comic-like books. Kid or adult, if you are a Marvel fan (particularly if you are one who enjoys cute, slapstick tumblr blogs, memes, and fanfic of our heroes) you need to check out this fun read for all.

Stay tuned for volume 2 featuring Squirrel Girl as the main lead in April!

Part of this review was originally published in a 2020 post on the Hijabi Librarians Instagram account.