Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

Image: Penguin Random House

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~10 hours, 26 minutes. Read by Deepti Gupta, Kamran R. Khan and Kausar Mohammed. Listening Library, March, 2022. 9780593502228. (Review of finished e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir. Ms. Tahir made a huge splash with her debut trilogy starter, An Ember in the Ashes. Here she turns from fantasy to contemporary realistic fiction and the results are gut-wrenching and utterly compelling.

Salahudin and Noor are eighteen-year-old seniors living in a small town in the Mojave Desert in California. They are the only Muslims in town and used to be best friends. Noor is an orphan who lost her parents in an earthquake in Pakistan when she was six. Her uncle, who owns a liquor store and was her only living relative, brought her to the U.S., but has banned her from speaking Punjabi or practicing Islam. Though Noor wishes to attend college and eventually study medicine, her uncle's plans for her to work at his liquor store full-time.

Sal's parents own the financially failing Cloud Rest Motel and his mother, Misbah has ignored her health problems due to lack of insurance. His father struggles with alcoholism. Sal learns of the severity of the financial problems when Misbah dies. His father is useless and Sal vows to save the motel, but makes a poor choice in order to do so.

The POV (point-of-view) shifts between Noor and Sal in the present with snippets of the past narrated by Misbah. The result is a feeling of immediacy and utter dread as the story unfolds. Issues of class, race, Islamaphobia, abuse, found family and the criminal justice system collide in a compelling, yet painful narrative. I read this one with my ears and had to stop often due to the intensity of emotions I felt.

Mature teen fans of the author's Ember in the Ashes Trilogy will most definitely want to read All My Rage, as will fans of contemporary realistic fiction. This is a story that will stay with me for a long time. 

I'm so glad I read this with my ears. The three narrators were pitch perfect. 

Middle Grade Monday and Arc Review: The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna by Alda P. Dobbs

Image: Sourcebooks

The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna by Alda P. Dobbs. 288 p. Sourcebooks, September, 2021. 9781728234654. (Review of arc courtesy of the author.)

Happy Monday! I hope you enjoyed your weekend! We had a snow day here on Friday, so the weekend felt luxuriously long. Students have a scheduled long weekend next weekend for MLK's birthday. Teachers have a PD day.

Middle Grade Monday features The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna by Alda P. Dobbs. This historical fiction set in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution is based, in part on the author's family history.

Twelve-year-old Petra Luna gathers wood to sell in her village each day. She doesn't go to school. Neither she nor her father nor Abuelita read, but she longs to. Her mother died giving birth to her brother and her father has been conscripted by the Federales, who are brutally hunting down and quashing the revolutionaries. She promised her father that she would look after her grandmother, younger sister and baby brother until they could be reunited, but now the Federales have burned their village to the ground the the family are refugees heading north to the border and the U.S. How can she shepherd her remaining family across the desert on foot, with little money and scant knowledge of life outside of her village?

Readers will instantly root for the resilient Petra and become immersed in her dangerous trek. Though the Mexican Revolution happened over a hundred years ago, the continued plight of refugees all over the world makes this a timely novel to read today. There is an immediacy in Ms. Dobbs' writing, so much so that I often had to put the book down to take a break from the emotion that it evoked.

The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna is the author's debut. I recommend it highly-for fans of historical fiction and for any reader wishing to become more empathetic. Happy reading!

Teen Tuesday: We are Not from Here by Jennie Torres Sanchez

Image: Penguin Random House

We Are Not From Here by Jennie Torres Sanchez. 368 p. Philomel/ Penguin Young Readers Group, March 2020.

Happy Tuesday! I hope you got out and about in the delightfully breezy weather after school yesterday. Latinx Heritage Month continues and Teen Tuesday features We Are Not From Here by Jennie Torres Sanchez. This searing novel is a gut punch. It grips the reader from page one and often tightens its grip so unbearably, you will need to put the book down and remind yourself to breathe. Not gonna lie - this is a tough read for a mature teen reader. But it's relevant and important.

Three teens, Pulga, Chico and Pequeña are cousins, best friends and found family. Chico's mother died tragically, so Pulga' and Pequeña's step in to raise and protect him. They are dirt poor and live in a terrible neighborhood run by Rey and his gang. Pequeña has caught Rey's eye and has no choice in the matter. Pulga and Chico witnessed Rey murder a beloved shopkeeper and now have to join the gang or risk death.

There's no way out. Or is there? Pulga has been studying maps and the route of La Bestia, a perilous train, difficult to board and hang on, but which promises transportation nearer to the U.S. border. Worst of all is the terror of knowing if they get caught and returned home, death awaits them.

This is an unflinching read that shines a light on tough issues facing thousands of people who risk their lives in search of a new start and relative safety in the U.S.

We are Not from Here published last year and earned at least four starred reviews, made quite a number of "Best" lists, including New York Public Library's and was named a Pura Belpré Honor. Highly recommended! Pulga, Chico and Pequeña won't soon leave your heart-space. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo

Image: Penguin Random House

 Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo. Unabridged audiobook, ~191 minutes. Read by the author. Listening Library/ Make Me a World/ Random House Children's Books, March, 2021. 9780593343708. (Review of e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features another verse novel about the Muslim immigrant experience. In Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo, fourteen-year-old Nima despairs of ever fitting in and grieves for a father she never knew. Her father died in a car accident back in Sudan (presumably, it is never named) before she was born. Her mother and her best friend, both pregnant, immigrated to the U.S., where Nima and Haitham were born. They live in the same apartment building and Haitham is like a brother to Nima. He does his best to protect her from bullies, but she's constantly picked on for her religion, her skin color, and her poverty. Nima wishes her mother had stayed in Sudan and named her Yasmeen. She's convinced her life would've been different.

In fact, she believes that she glimpses Yasmeen from time to time and this is where the novel veers into magical realism. After a series of crises, Nima gets to travel the road not taken.

This was an immersive read. I'm glad I read with my ears. First, I adore listening poets read their own work. Secondly, as mentioned in Monday's post, I love hearing the foreign language words and names pronounced correctly. 

Home is Not a Country should appeal to teens who enjoy verse novels, stories of the immigrant experience and stories about finding one's place/ belonging. 

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: Unsettled by Reem Faruqi

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Unsettled by Reem Faruqi. Unabridged e-Audiobook, ~2.5 hours. HarperAudio/ HarperCollins Publishers, May, 2021. 9780063044739. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Happy Monday! I am roughly halfway through summer break and it seems to be a good time to stop and reflect. Am I having fun? Am I getting exercise? Am I getting outdoors in between all the rain we've been having? Am I reading? This has been an eventful summer for me filled with a fair amount of stress, but I am trying to get some exercise and get out of doors each day. I've been averaging seven miles a day of walking and I walk briskly enough to get my heart rate up. 

The stress has definitely impacted my reading. I'm finding it difficult to maintain concentration and even though I've read roughly a book a day this summer, I went into the break 28 books behind my GR goal and was hoping to catch up. That won't happen and that is okay.

Middle Grade Monday features Unsettled by Reem Faruqi. This blank verse novel is loosely based on the author's childhood. Nurah has a perfect life in Karachi, Pakistan. She has a best friend, lives with her beloved grandmother and gets to swim in the ocean with her brother often. One perfect day at the beach turns into Nurah's worst day when her father announced plans to move to Peachtree City, Georgia for a new job. Suddenly, Nurah's life is unsettled as she realizes that everything about her from her accented English through her clothing and brown skin makes her stick out when all she wants to do is blend in. Joining the swim team helps, but she becomes jealous of her brother's ability and seeming ease at fitting in.

This moving novel is told in verse in nine sections. Issues of racism, Islamophobia, racial profiling and friendship are explored. Back matter includes a glossary of Arabic and Urdu terms that are woven into the text, an author's note and a recipe.

The audio was well-paced. The narrator's voice sounded youthful and I appreciated her fluency with Arabic. When I read foreign language words with my eyes, I tend to butcher the pronunciation or skim right by. I know I should stop and look the words up, but I often sacrifice that in favor of staying in the flow of the book. 

Unsettled should appeal to a wide range of middle grade readers. 

Teen Tuesday: Everything Sad is Untrue: a Novel by Daniel Nayeri

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Everything Sad is Untrue: a Novel by Daniel Nayeri. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~8 hours. Read by the author. Listening Library, 2020. 9780593168417.

Teen Tuesday features Everything Sad is Untrue: a Novel by Daniel Nayeri. Ten-year-old Khosrou stands in front of his fifth grade class in Edmond, Oklahoma. He is a target. He is the only Iranian in the mostly white town. His classmates and teachers can't pronounce his name and so, he is now Daniel and he's a storyteller, just as Scheherazade was - telling stories to save his life. How did the son of a physician and a dentist who lived in luxury in Iran end up fleeing with his mother and sister? His classmates learn Daniel's story slowly, as does the reader because, while often humorous, it's very painful. They also learn about Persian kings and princesses and kindly doctors. The story zigs and zags and, while it requires a bit of patience, like any long story, it is satisfying.

This compelling and complex autobiographical novel won the 2021 Printz Award. 

The audiobook was narrated by the author and was outstanding. Mr. Nayari's storytelling skills shine here.

#tbt: Heat by Mike Lupica

Image: Penguin Random House

Heat by Mike Lupica. 224 p. Philomel/ Penguin Young Readers Group, 2006. 9780399243011. (Own)

#tbt features Heat by Mike Lupica. Heat is the story of Michael Arroyo, a twelve-year-old pitching phenom with an 80 mph pitch. Coaches don't think he's twelve and want him to produce his birth certificate only that's not easy because it's in Cuba and investigation by the authorities will reveal that Michael's father died and his not-quite-eighteen-year-old older brother has been caring for him. Lupica was a sports journalist who wrote a column for the New York Daily News. He wrote several biographies of sports figures and novels for adults before making his middle grade debut with Travel Team in 2004. Heat is his second book for young people published in 2006. Lupica published a sequel to Heat recently called Strike Zone.

Teen Tuesday: The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante

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The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante. 320 p. G.P. Putnam's Sons/ Penguin Young Readers, June, 2019. 9780525514022. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

Teen Tuesday features The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante. This powerful and timely debut tells the story of two sisters who are seeking asylum in the United States because they fear for their lives after their father disappears and their brother is murdered back in El Salvador. The two have walked for days and weeks, enduring harsh conditions; but they have been caught. Seventeen-year-old Marisol fears that her plea for asylum will not be granted and flees the detention center with her sister, Gabi. They are picked up by a government agent and offered a deal to stay in the U.S. Marisol can become a "grief keeper," an experimental conduit for grief or trauma in exchange for asylum. 

Medical experimentation can be an ethical slippery slope. Often test subjects are the least able to give informed consent and most likely driven by desperation—prisoners, poor people and those without power. Marisol is terrified of being sent back and hides the side effects of the transfer from the doctor and agent in charge. 

Through Marisol's careful, thoughtful narration, readers slowly learn her secrets as well as the secrets of Rey, the teenage daughter of a powerful DC businessman from whom Marisol must absorb traumatic grief. Tension is high in this genre-blender—part sci/fi, part thriller, part romance. Along the way, thoughtful readers might ponder issues of identity, governmental power, immigration policies, prejudice and institutional racism. Wholly engrossing and beautifully written, Marisol is a character who will linger long after you close the book.

Happy Thanksgiving! #tbt: Rettie and the Ragamuffin Parade by Trinka Hakes Noble

Rettie and the Ragamuffin Parade: a Thanksgiving story by Trinka Hakes Noble. Illustrated by David C. Gardner. Tales of Young Americans series. unpgd. Sleeping Bear Press, September, 2017. 9781585369607. (Own.)

I was going to skip #tbt today. Take a break for the Thanksgiving holiday. But then this book popped into my head and even though it's only a year old (#tbt usually features books older than 10 years), I decided to review it. 

The year is 1918 and a flu epidemic is sweeping the country, especially the tightly packed immigrant communities in New York's Lower East Side. Rettie is doing her best to care for her stricken mother and four younger siblings. She's only nine and her father is off fighting in the war. She scrambles to do odd jobs to earn money and hopes to participate in the ragamuffin parade so she can collect coins. She hopes the epidemic will not cancel the parade because she wants to feed her family on Thanksgiving. 

Poignantly told and sumptuously illustrated, this tale tugs at the heartstrings. This picture book for older readers is a wonderful Thanksgiving read aloud to encourage gratitude and reflection. An author's note at the end provides historical context. Rettie and the Ragamuffin Parade is a wonderful addition to any school, public or classroom library!