Celebrate Arab American Heritage Month with these reads!
Abirached was born in Lebanon in 1981. She grew up in Beirut as fighting between Christians and Muslims divided the city streets. Follow her past cards riddled with bullet holes, into taxi cabs that travel where buses refuse to go, and on outings to collect shrapnel from the sidewalk. With striking black-and-white artworks, Abirached recalls the details of ordinary life inside a war zone.
*summary taken from the publisher's website
From two incredible rising talents comes the fantasy graphic novel Molly Knox Ostertag calls "instantly compelling." Aiza has always dreamt of becoming a Knight. It's the highest military honor in the once-great Bayt-Sajji Empire, and as a member of the subjugated Ornu people, Knighthood is her only path to full citizenship. Ravaged by famine and mounting tensions, Bayt-Sajji finds itself on the brink of war once again, so Aiza can finally enlist in the competitive Squire training program. It's not how she imagined it, though. Aiza must navigate new friendships, rivalries, and rigorous training under the unyielding General Hende, all while hiding her Ornu background. As the pressure mounts, Aiza realizes that the "greater good" that Bayt-Sajji's military promises might not include her, and that the recruits might be in greater danger than she ever imagined. In this breathtaking and timely story, Aiza will have to choose, once and for all: loyalty to her heart and heritage, or loyalty to the Empire.
Nothing is going right for Nayra Mansour. There's the constant pressure from her strict family, ruthless bullying from her classmates, and exhausting friendship demands from Rami—the only other Muslim girl at school. Nayra has had enough. Just when she's considering transferring schools to escape it all, a mysterious djinn named Marjan appears. As a djinn, a mythical being in Islamic folklore, Marjan uses their powers and wisdom to help Nayra navigate her overwhelming life. But Marjan's past is fraught with secrets, guilt, and trouble, and if they don't face what they've done, Nayra could pay the price.
The author remembers her childhood in Ramallah and as a Palestinian refugee in the late 1960s.
Allie Abraham is a straight-A student, with good friends and a close-knit family. She's dating cute, popular, and sweet Wells Henderson—whose father is Jack Henderson, America's most famous conservative shock jock. Allie hasn't told Wells that her family is Muslim. It's not a secret, it's just that her parents don't practice and raised her to keep her Islamic heritage to herself. As Allie witnesses ever-growing Islamophobia in her small town and across the nation, she begins to study her faith, practicing it, and facing hatred and misunderstanding for it. Can a Muslim girl in America ever truly fit in?
Winner of the 2019 Shoman Award for Science Fiction, I Want Golden Eyes is a gripping young adult science fiction novel set in the futuristic city of Quartzia on the Comoros Islands. The story follows Diyala, a 16-year-old girl navigating life in the Burrow, a segregated world beneath Quartzia. Her family works for the privileged Golden Eyes, who live above in luxury. Diyala's curiosity and love for knowledge drive her to uncover hidden truths about the city's divisions, challenging her perceptions of power and privilege. With themes of resilience, family bonds, and the pursuit of justice, this thought-provoking novel explores the complexities of a society shaped by genetic hierarchies and secrets waiting to be revealed.
Eighteen-year-old Amani is kidnapped by a conquering regime and forced to be a body double for the cruel and hated princess Maram.
Nima doesn't feel understood. By her mother, who grew up far away in a different land. By her suburban town, which makes her feel too much like an outsider to fit in and not enough like an outsider to feel like that she belongs somewhere else. At least she has her childhood friend Haitham, with whom she can let her guard down and be herself. Until she doesn't. As the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen, the name her parents didn't give her at birth: Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might just be more real than Nima knows. And more hungry. And the life Nima has, the one she keeps wishing were someone else's...she might have to fight for it with a fierceness she never knew she had.
Huda and her family just moved to Dearborn, Michigan, a small town with a big Muslim population. In her old town, Huda knew exactly who she was: She was the hijabi girl. But in Dearborn, everyone is the hijabi girl. Huda is lost in a sea of hijabis, and she can't rely on her hijab to define her anymore. She has to define herself. So she tries on a bunch of cliques, but she isn't a hijabi fashionista or a hijabi athlete or a hijabi gamer. She's not the one who knows everything about her religion or the one all the guys like. She's miscellaneous, which makes her feel like no one at all. Until she realizes that it'll take finding out who she isn't to figure out who she is.
Adapted from the adult memoir, this gripping and acclaimed story follows one boy’s journey into young adulthood, against the backdrop of civil war and his ultimate immigration to America in search of a better life.
Abdi Nor Iftin grew up amidst a blend of cultures, far from the United States. At home in Somalia, his mother entertained him with vivid folktales and bold stories detailing her rural, nomadic upbringing. As he grew older, he spent his days following his father, a basketball player, through the bustling streets of the capital city of Mogadishu. But when the threat of civil war reached Abdi's doorstep, his family was forced to flee to safety. Through the turbulent years of war, young Abdi found solace in popular American music and films. Nicknamed Abdi the American, he developed proficiency for English that connected him— and his story—with news outlets and radio shows, and eventually gave him a shot at winning the annual U.S visa lottery. Abdi shares every part of his journey, and his courageous account reminds readers that everyone deserves the chance to build a brighter future for themselves.
*summary taken from the publisher's website
Eighteen-year-old Salama Kassab, a pharmacy student volunteering at the hospital in Homs, is desperate to find passage on a refugee boat for herself and her pregnant best friend, but first she must learn to see the events around her for what they are--not a war, but a revolution.
Fifteen-year-old Jessie, a quirky loner obsessed with the nineties, is diagnosed as autistic just weeks before starting high school. Determined to make a fresh start and keep her diagnosis a secret, Jessie creates a list of goals that range from acquiring two distinct eyebrows to getting a magical first kiss and landing a spot in the school play. Within the halls of Holy Trinity High, she finds a world where things are no longer black and white and quickly learns that living in color is much more fun. But Jessie gets more than she bargained for when two very different boys steal her heart, forcing her to go off-script.
A missing sister. A mysterious boy. And a painting that holds the truth beneath its peeling edge... Inez is missing, but missing things can always be found. Mae knows this as a fact, even though the police investigation has come to a standstill, even though her parents are moving on. But when she goes to clear out her older sister's studio, she finds a mess of research and a white canvas that seems even older than the ornate frame it is set in. The closer Mae gets to the canvas, the more difficult it is to pull her eyes away from its mottled surface, its heavy layers of white paint, its peeling top corner she is tempted to pull to see what's beneath. But she doesn't t. Mae decides to trace her sister's last steps in the hopes of finding answers, certain that Inez's disappearance is related to the painting. And she knows she is desperate enough to let the strange boy who claims to have been Inez's neighbor tag along. Even if his good looks don't help distract from his avoidance of her questions. So begins a scavenger hunt piecing together what they can find from what Inez left behind. One that leads to centuries-old questions best left unasked and secrets best kept in the dark.
Refugee advocate Luma Mufleh writes of her tumultuous journey to reconcile her identity as a gay Muslim woman and a proud Arab-turned-American refugee.
A collection of poems about family and the love we share with one another throughout life's peaks and valleys.
A Muslim-American teen goes into denial mode about her role in an out-of-control party that occurred during Ramadan, a situation that escalates until she incurs damage that is harder to repair, forcing her to come to terms with her true self.
Aminah Mae Safi's Tell Me How You Really Feel is an ode to romantic comedies, following two girls on opposite sides of the social scale as they work together to make a movie and try very hard not to fall in love. The first time Sana Khan asked out a girl —Rachel Recht—it went so badly that she never did it again. Rachel is a film buff and aspiring director, and she's seen Carrie enough times to learn you can never trust cheerleaders (and beautiful people). Rachel was furious that Sana tried to prank her by asking her on a date. But when it comes time for Rachel to cast her senior project, she realizes that there's no more perfect lead than Sana—the girl she's sneered at in the halls for the past three years. And poor Sana—she says yes. She never did really get over that first crush, even if Rachel can barely stand to be in the same room as her. Told in alternative viewpoints and set against the backdrop of Los Angeles in the springtime, when the rainy season rolls in and the Santa Ana's can still blow— these two girls are about to learn that in the city of dreams, anything is possible—even love.
Since the passing of their father, Oscar has tried to be the man of his family of Syrian refugees. As Oscar waits in line for rations, his younger brother Sufyan explores more nontraditional methods to provide for his family. Ignoring his brother's warnings, Sufyan gets more and more involved with a group that provides him with big rewards for doing seemingly inconsequential tasks. When the group abruptly gets more intense—taking Sufyan and other boys away from their families, teaching them how to shoot guns—Sufyan realizes his brother is right. But is it too late for Sufyan to get out of this? It's left to the bookish Oscar to rescue his brother and reunite his family.
The unlikely friendship between Syrian American boxer Khadija and Syrian refugee Leene reveals the pressures and expectations of the perfect Syrian daughter and the repercussions of the Syrian Revolution both at home and abroad.
While her mother is out of town, sixteen-year-old Taliah accompanies her estranged father—a famous rock star who one day appears on her doorstep—to Oak Falls, Indiana, to meet his dying father and the rest of his family, and on the way Taliah learns about how her parents met and separated, her mother's experience as a Jordanian immigrant, and her own ability to accept change and open up to others.