Readers will cheer for Nadia as she responds to prejudice and affirms her identity.
Nadia Youssef is starting sixth grade, trying to navigate friendships, and tackling tough issues like racism and bullying.
Nadia is an Egyptian American immigrant, living in California with her physician parents; Baba’s a cardiologist, and Mama’s a pulmonologist. Based loosely on co-author Youssef’s real daughter, Nadia loves facts, collects bobbleheads, spends her summers in Egypt, and is very close to her best friends, Adam, who’s White, Sarah, who’s Korean American, Chloe, who's Black, and Vikram, who’s Indian American; together they’re the Nerd Patrol. The quintet is excited to learn that the Museum of American History is inviting students to team up and present ideas for an exhibit. Struggling with what it means to be a team leader, Nadia must also cope with a bullying new White student. Jason demands, “Where exactly are you from, anyway?” and sneers at her “desert people food.” Mystifyingly, Adam seems to want to be friends with Jason even though he hears the mean things Jason says. With a little help from a magical amulet, advice from her parents, and the help of her friends, Nadia makes a plan. Youssef and Daly draw a strong character who is proud of her heritage and culture and is not afraid to show her Egyptian roots. Holgate’s black-and-white cartoon vignettes pair well with the text, especially bringing out certain personality quirks and moments of humor. Nadia and Vikram make connections about similarities between their cultures, such as the “practice of snake charming” and some foodstuffs.
Readers will cheer for Nadia as she responds to prejudice and affirms her identity. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-57228-5
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...
The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.
Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 1, 1989
ISBN: 0547577095
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989
A real gem.
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
India Opal’s mama left when she was only three, and her father, “the preacher,” is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.” But, this dog had a grin “so big that it made him sneeze.” And, as Opal says, “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.” Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she’s been the librarian ever since. Then, there’s nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he’s let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it’s funny, too.
A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0776-2
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
SEEN & HEARD
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