Internment by Samira Ahmed

Internment by Samira Ahmed is a work of activism.  Seventeen-year-old Layla Amin lives in a United States "fifteen minutes into the future" where Islamophobia has become so rampant that there are burning of books by Muslim authors and curfews are imposed.  Layla's college professor father has been removed from his job and her chiropractor mother's clinic has fewer and fewer clients.

And then the relocation authority comes for Layla and her parents.  Their only crime is that they professed their faith on the census. So they are being sent to a camp,  can pack only what they can carry and, of course, have to give up their phones.  

Soon, they are on a train that will take them to the Owens Valley.  From there, they board buses that take them farther into the desert.  

The beginning of this story will feel uncomfortably familiar.  Not only is it referencing our current political climate, but it also follows the path traveled by the Japanese-American families living on the Pacific coast in World War II.  Right down to the fact that Layla and her family drive past Manzanar, which was the first Japanese internment camp to open during the war, on their way to their new camp.  

I am very familiar with this event in history because my small community has the distinction of being the first place where the Japanese-Americans were removed from their homes.  Layla and her family recreate their journey in many ways, including just how established the infrastructure of their removal to the camps is.  There's a special train, buses, guards, numbers that identify your family and... at the end... there is a camp with "Mercury Homes"-- RVs-- instead of tar paper shacks but still organized into blocks around a mess hall.  

And, just like the camps from 50 years ago, there is dust.  Always dust.  

There is no familiar historical script for Amin to follow once she has her characters at the camp, which is yet another uncomfortable place for the reader to be.  We will not be watching our characters live in a camp until the war is over, because there is no declared war that we are dealing with here and we have no idea what the resolution will be.  

The cover art has Layla wearing a baseball cap with the word "RESIST" on it and that is what she does, in spite of her parent's surprising hope that she will go along with camp administration's plans and goals.  She is aided by an unlikely partner, one of the guards who's interest in helping her demonstrates that there are many others outside of the camp that are working to destroy the system from within, 

There are many reasons why I think that this novel is going to be popular with my students.  Layla is a strong heroine, the action is fast-paced and there is much to talk about in terms of comparing with history and with today as well.  

I Should Have Honor by Khalida Brohi - Review

I Should Have Honor by Khalida Brohi. 

This is a slim book with a great amount of power.  Khalida Brohi is a Pakistani woman who grew up in a tribal village where family and tradition are valued and a family's honor is upheld above all, even to the point of death.  While still a young girl, she discovers that her favorite cousin is killed after she disgraces the family by running away with the boy that she loves. 

It is a called an honor killing.  

Khalida's entire life is changed by this event.  As she grows older, stopping this practice will become her one defining goal.  But she realizes that trying to attack this challenge directly won't work in her male-dominated society so she has to adopt a much more nuanced approach.  

Her strategy is inspired by her father, who was an early supporter of her access to education and has held the role of journalist as well as community organizer.  It involves a great deal of talking and finding ways to empower women so that they are seen as valuable and essential.  She succeeds in building programs that seem to carry on well without her direct oversight and you can see her evolving into a inspiring entrepreneur who helps indigenous women capitalize on their cultural traditions.  The embroidery on the cover celebrates this.  

But eliminating the practice of honor killings remains the focus of her work and doing that is quite dangerous.  Her family rightly fears for her life as well as their own and there is definitely a moment where her father becomes less supportive of her work.  After some times, she realizes that it is protective gesture.  

What Khalida Brohi does well in telling her story is to help the reader understand the extreme societal pressures that she and her family are under.  It is also abundantly clear just how much pride she has in her Pakistani culture.  There are times when the story gets bogged down with the many acronyms that represent the NGO (non-governmental organization) world in Pakistan but that is also a reality that Brohi has to work with.  

I bought one copy for my library when the book first came out and I am the third reader that it has had.  The cover and Brohi's compelling story sold itself from my table of new book reads.  The bright yellow cover helps it stand out.  Readers who enjoyed I Am Malala will definitely find this I Should Have Honor an engaging and valuable read.  

Great transgender reads for 2019!

Here are two excellent new young adult novels with transgender characters.  

Birthday by Meredith Russo.  

Birthdays!  They're a time to feel celebrated and loved, especially if you share your birthday day with one of your besties from childhood.  And that's the way it is for Morgan and Eric.  

Here are two kids who have been a part of each other’s childhoods ever since their parents gave birth to them on the same day and at the same hospital during a freak September blizzard.  Their friendship gets even more solid during years of learning to play football together and also through family tragedies like the death of Morgan’s mom. 

On the birthday day right before they start middle school, Morgan considers letting Eric know a deeply held secret.  Morgan is questioning his gender.  

The reader gets to check in with during their next birthdays, which is a great way to allow time to move quickly.  We will get to see Morgan and Eric all the way through high school and beyond. Their years are filled with major changes that test their friendship.  But they always seem to find a way to spend at least a part of their birthday day together.  

I read this in one evening because Morgan’s story is so compelling. Morgan’s father and community make it very difficult to live her truth. There is one chapter closer to the end that is particularly heartbreaking as Morgan attempts to live up to community and family expectations.  

This is Meredith Russo's next novel after her excellent If I Was Your Girl.  

And She Was by Jessica Verdi 

Dara's life after high school plan is to play professional tennis and she has the skill and the coaching to achieve this goal.  What she doesn't have is a mother who believes in her life path and the money to support her while she does this. 

She also does not have a passport to get her to the Canadian tournament that she needs to start getting noticed for her abilities.  So she asks her mom for her birth certificate.  Her mom insists that it has been lost and refuses to talk about it any further. 

So Dara does what any thwarted 18-year-old would do.  She tears the house apart, eventually finding the lock box under her mom's bed, the key to the lock box, and--finally-the certificate. 

Which does not have her actual name on it.  More intriguingly, it also doesn't have the right parent names either. 

Dara spends a few hours thinking that she was abducted at birth before her mom comes home.  When confronted, she tells the truth.  Her mom is actually her biological father.  She transitioned after Dara was born.  

Dara is rocked to the core by this news.  When she learns that she also has a set of grandparents that she has never known, she decides that she is going on a road trip to find them.  She takes along her childhood best friend and neighbor. 

At some point in time, her mom starts to send her emails explaining the whole story from the very beginning.  These two story lines start to link up as Dara finds her lost family and starts to realize what they may be able to do for her. 

Dara's identity struggles and anger towards her mother is honest and riveting.