It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

{Celebrating the books we’ve read in the past week

&

the titles we are currently reading.}

This meme is originated by Jen and Kellee at TeachMentorTexts. Thanks!

Let’s make sure we come back and watch this video:

Published by Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, September 13th, 2016. Pre-order:Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com.

Overview

Marina Budhos’s extraordinary and timely novel examines what it’s like to grow up under surveillance, something many Americans experience and most Muslim Americans know.

Naeem is far from the “model teen.” Moving fast in his immigrant neighborhood in Queens is the only way he can outrun the eyes of his hardworking Bangladeshi parents and their gossipy neighbors. Even worse, they’re not the only ones watching. Cameras on poles. Mosques infiltrated. Everyone knows: Be careful what you say and who you say it to. Anyone might be a watcher.

Naeem thinks he can charm his way through anything, until his mistakes catch up with him and the cops offer a dark deal. Naeem sees a way to be a hero—a protector—like the guys in his brother’s comic books. Yet what is a hero? What is a traitor? And where does Naeem belong?

Acclaimed author Marina Budhos delivers a riveting story that’s as vivid and involving as today’s headlines.

I was looking forward to reading this new Budhos book after reading Ask Me No Questions a few years ago. Once again, I was taken on a journey into the life of a young Muslim—a Bangladeshi high schooler—and caught a glimpse into what his life was like. Living in a post-9/11 NYC where ISIS and refugees are in the news daily is a challenge. It was a thrilling and saddening and stressful ride to watch to watch Naeem make terrible choices… and choices that weren’t clearly good or bad. The internal and external struggles were jarring.