How It All Blew Up by
Fleeing to Rome in the wake of coming out to his Muslim family, a failed relationship, and blackmail, eighteen-year-old Amir Azadi embarks on a more authentic life with new friends and dates in the Sistine Chapel before an encounter with a U.S. Customs officer places his hard-won freedom at risk.
Love from a to Z by
A marvel: something you find amazing. Even ordinary-amazing. Like potatoes—because they make French fries happen. Like the perfect fries Adam and his mom used to make together. An oddity: whatever gives you pause. Like the fact that there are hateful people in the world. Like Zayneb’s teacher, who won’t stop reminding the class how “bad” Muslims are. But Zayneb, the only Muslim in class, isn’t bad. She’s angry. When she gets suspended for confronting her teacher, and he begins investigating her activist friends, Zayneb heads to her aunt’s house in Doha, Qatar, for an early start to spring break. Fueled by the guilt of getting her friends in trouble, she resolves to try out a newer, “nicer” version of herself in a place where no one knows her. Then her path crosses with Adam’s. Since he got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in November, Adam’s stopped going to classes, intent, instead, on perfecting the making of things. Intent on keeping the memory of his mom alive for his little sister. Adam’s also intent on keeping his diagnosis a secret from his grieving father. Alone, Adam and Zayneb are playing roles for others, keeping their real thoughts locked away in their journals. Until a marvel and an oddity occurs…
A Very Large Expanse of Sea by
In 2002, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl named Shirin starts over at yet another high school, having dealt with the prejudice and abuse that followed 9/11. She copes with the anti-Islamic animosity by turning to music and break-dancing. She meets Ocean James, who comes from a very different background, but really seems to want to get to know her. But she's had the walls up for so long, she doesn't know if she can really let him in.
Here to Stay by
When a cyberbully sends the entire high school a picture of basketball hero Bijan Majidi, photo-shopped to look like a terrorist, the school administration promises to find and punish the culprit, but Bijan just wants to pretend the incident never happened and move on.
Saints and Misfits by
Janna Yusuf is a sophomore trying to find her place within the splinters of her broken family, crushing on a cute boy, and finding hope within her Muslim faith. But an attempted sexual assault by a devout young man at her mosque has shaken her ability to trust others.
Sisters of the War: Life, Loss, and Hope in Syria (Scholastic Focus) by
Presents the stories of Sunni Muslim Ruha and her sister Alaa and Alawite sisters Hanin and Jawa, two pairs of sisters on the opposite sides of the Syrian civil war, and highlights the living conditions in the rebel-controlled territory and the police state of regime-held Syria.
Crossroads: An Anthology of Resilience and Hope by Young Somali Writers by
Presents a collection of poems and prose pieces from teenaged and young adult Somali Minnesotans, writing of their stages in life and its transitions, between childhood and adulthood, and between Somali and American culture. Highlights how these Somali American writers expand on Somalia's oral heritage by writing their own stories, struggles, and hopes and dreams.
Internment by
Set in the near-future United States, Muslim Americans are being taken to internment camps, which followed book burnings, curfews, and mandatory viewing of the new president's national security addresses. Seventeen-year-old Layla Amin watches with contempt at the complicity of the community and her own parents who accept their current plight. She makes friends both within and outside the camp intent on starting a revolution that will end the violence and Islamophobia.
Not the Girls You're Looking For by
In this coming-of-age novel, Lulu Saad considers herself both American and Arab, which in her American classmates' eyes makes her a terrorist, while her Muslim family disapproves of her American lifestyle. Tackling her junior year at her Texas prep school with a chip on her shoulder, Lulu makes a significant, impetuous mistake that could cost her more than she bargained for.
Ayesha at Last by
Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her one hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn't want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid, who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices and who dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.
When a surprise engagement is announced between Khalid and Hafsa, Ayesha is torn between how she feels about the straightforward Khalid and the unsettling new gossip she hears about his family. Looking into the rumors, she finds she has to deal with not only what she discovers about Khalid, but also the truth she realizes about herself.
Everything Sad Is Untrue by
As Khosrou (whom everyone calls Daniel) stands in front of his Oklahoma middle school classmates, he tries to tell them his story from the jasmine-scented city of Isfahan to the terrifying journey out of Iran steps ahead of the secret police to the refugee camps of Italy.
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by
Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He’s a Fractional Persian—half, his mom’s side—and his first-ever trip to Iran is about to change his life. Darius has never really fit in at home, and he’s sure things are going to be the same in Iran. His clinical depression doesn’t exactly help matters, and trying to explain his medication to his grandparents only makes things harder. Then Darius meets Sohrab, the boy next door, and everything changes. Soon, they’re spending their days together, playing soccer, eating faludeh, and talking for hours on a secret rooftop overlooking the city’s skyline. Sohrab calls him Darioush—the original Persian version of his name—and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he’s Darioush to Sohrab. Adib Khorram’s brilliant debut is for anyone who’s ever felt not good enough—then met a friend who makes them feel so much better than okay.
Call Me American by
The author shares the story of his life from his birth under a neem tree in Somalia to his journey to America. Highlights the traditions and customs of his culture as well as his dreams of becoming an American citizen and the struggles he faced as a Somali refugee.
A Map of Home by
Nidali, the rebellious daughter of an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father, narrates the story of her childhood in Kuwait, her teenage years in Egypt (to where she and her family fled the 1990 Iraqi invasion), and her family's last flight to Texas. Nidali mixes humor with a sharp, loving portrait of an eccentric middle-class family, and this perspective keeps her buoyant through the hardships she encounters: the humiliation of going through a checkpoint on a visit to her father's home in the West Bank; the fights with her father, who wants her to become a famous professor and stay away from boys; the end of her childhood as Iraq invades Kuwait on her thirteenth birthday; and the scare she gives her family when she runs away from home.
