Middle Grade Monday and Arc Review: Wave by Diana Farid. Illustrated by Kris Goto

Image: Cameron Kids

Wave by Diana Farid. Illustrated by Kris Goto. 315 p. Cameron Kids/ Abrams Books, March 29, 2022. 9781951836580. (Review of arc courtesy of Blue Slip Media.)

Happy Monday! I hope you enjoyed the weekend and got outside as much as possible. Spring has sprung! The trees are budding and sleepy perennials are pushing their way up. Last week, my daffodils grew four inches overnight! I started my yard clean-up while waiting for son #1 to arrive with his wife and daughter. It was such a pleasure to visit with them, a nice distraction from anticipating Tuesday, which will be the first wedding anniversary I will "celebrate" alone. Grief sure does come in waves.

Middle Grade Monday features Wave by Diana Farid. It is 1987 in Southern California. The only plans Ava, a thirteen-year-old Persian-American has for the summer between eighth grade and high school are surfing, surfing and more surfing with her bestie, Phoenix. Her single-mother, who is a physician has signed Ava up as a volunteer in her hospital in the hopes that Ava will want to study medicine. Ava has no desire to work in health care and, it turns out, faints at the sight of blood. Still, dutiful daughter that she is, she goes and connects with a patient who asks her to read the Persian poet, Rumi to him.

Meanwhile, Phoenix's lymphoma has returned adding more turmoil to the anxiety roiling in Ava, who is also coping with OCD as well as missing the father she never really new and balancing two cultures, never truly fitting in either one.

This accessible verse novel is written in both blank and concrete poetry. Lovely black and white spot illustrations add to the mood. The verse rises and falls rhythmically, like waves as Ava's story unfolds. Persian words are woven into the poems with explanation and one even describes the labor of love that was creating a mix-tape, something contemporary teens in this age of streaming music and Spotify playlists may have trouble picturing.

The poems roll in like waves, some large, some small, some gently, some forceful enough to make the reader gasp. Wave is a quick, intense read that satisfies. If you love verse novels, surfing, or sad stories, Wave is the book for you. It releases on March 29 and would be an awesome addition to any library serving tweens and teens.