A timely story about silence as complicity, defending freedom, and the courage to fight against hate.
Reeling from her father’s sudden abandonment of their family, Noor’s mother moves her family to a small Illinois town far away from their life in Chicago.
Noor hopes to lie low and finish out the last quarter of her senior year, but she and her younger sister, Amal, are noticeably among the few Indian American and Muslim students at school. Once Noor learns that the school district has removed over 500 challenged books from the library shelves and slated them for committee review—mostly ones by marginalized writers—she feels compelled to act. She and her like-minded new friends protest by reading aloud from these books in public spaces. They also put up a “fREADom Library” (or Little Free Library for censored books), spreading the word on social media and encouraging others to join in. Their activism angers school administrators, students, and the local community. Along with their personal trauma, Noor’s family must also deal with veiled threats, racist and Islamophobic slurs, and physical violence. The story centers on the hot-button issues of book banning and freedom of speech, while also exploring family dynamics, forging friendships, and a budding love triangle. Although the pacing is at times weighed down by the content, Ahmed inventively uses different formats—social media comments, news articles, transcripts of television broadcasts—to examine the racist ideologies and talking points behind censorship efforts.
A timely story about silence as complicity, defending freedom, and the courage to fight against hate. (author’s note, resources, bibliography) (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9780316547840
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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