A timely, emotional story full of hope and love even in the face of discrimination and prejudice.
Twelve-year-old Yusuf Azeem is excited to start sixth grade until he finds hostile and racist notes in his locker.
Pakistani American Yusuf lives in the small town of Frey, Texas, with his father, who owns the A to Z Dollar Store; his mom, a freelance journalist and editor; and his younger sister. Yusuf has a feeling that 2021 will be a great year; he’s especially looking forward to participating in a robotics competition. Then he runs into bully Ethan Grant, a White boy whose father belongs to a nationalist group opposing the construction of a local mosque. With the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Yusuf’s social studies teacher has made it the subject of an assignment. Uncle Rahman gives Yusuf his journal from 2001—when he was 12—and through it Yusuf learns about how his uncle and other American Muslims were affected by Islamophobia and why 9/11 still matters today. Yusuf endures a life-changing incident when Ethan makes an accusation that publicly terrifies and humiliates him. Faruqi seamlessly interweaves Uncle Rahman’s journal entries into the story and realistically portrays the relationships and dynamics of the town’s small Muslim population. Yusuf’s character is well developed; surrounded by a loving family and tightknit community, he slowly finds his voice and the strength to stand up for what’s right even if it is scary.
A timely, emotional story full of hope and love even in the face of discrimination and prejudice. (author's note) (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-294325-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
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PERSPECTIVES
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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BOOK TO SCREEN
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay.
Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw feels like he’s been running ever since his dad pulled that gun on him and his mom—and used it.
His dad’s been in jail three years now, but Ghost still feels the trauma, which is probably at the root of the many “altercations” he gets into at middle school. When he inserts himself into a practice for a local elite track team, the Defenders, he’s fast enough that the hard-as-nails coach decides to put him on the team. Ghost is surprised to find himself caring enough about being on the team that he curbs his behavior to avoid “altercations.” But Ma doesn’t have money to spare on things like fancy running shoes, so Ghost shoplifts a pair that make his feet feel impossibly light—and his conscience correspondingly heavy. Ghost’s narration is candid and colloquial, reminiscent of such original voices as Bud Caldwell and Joey Pigza; his level of self-understanding is both believably childlike and disarming in its perception. He is self-focused enough that secondary characters initially feel one-dimensional, Coach in particular, but as he gets to know them better, so do readers, in a way that unfolds naturally and pleasingly. His three fellow “newbies” on the Defenders await their turns to star in subsequent series outings. Characters are black by default; those few white people in Ghost’s world are described as such.
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5015-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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PROFILES
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