Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed

HOLLOW FIRES by Samira Ahmed (Internment) is sure to spark discussion. This young adult novel would be an excellent choice for literature circles and book clubs. Ahmed utilizes different types of text (news articles, media transcripts and interviews) plus two primary narrators to describe events surrounding the tragic disappearance of a young boy in Chicago. His name is Jawad Ali who at 14 used recycled materials to create a jet pack costume for Halloween and was subsequently arrested because a teacher thought it might be a bomb. Sadly, this part of the story parallels real world events. The second voice is that of Safiya Mirza, Editor in Chief of her high school newspaper, The DuSable Spectator. She is a crusader, but also is portrayed as a typical teen worried about friendships and a budding romance. Together with friends, Safiya investigates Jawad’s disappearance and battles disinterest and outright hostility from authority figures in law enforcement and her school administration.

In 2019 Samira Ahmed wrote a piece for School Library Journal which challenged Librarians to “Use Your Power;” she said in part, “I’m asking you to examine the role we adults play in creating such a brutally unfair world for our children and to do what you can to change it. It starts with a conversation. It starts with challenging yourself.” Ahmed supports powerful conversations by beginning HOLLOW FIRES with definitions for Facts, Alternative facts, Truth and Lies and then adds provocative examples before each chapter like Lie: “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening” (Trump, July 24, 2018); Truth: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final and most essential command.” (George Orwell, 1984); Fact: “Truth is stranger than fiction.” HOLLOW FIRES received starred reviews from Kirkus (“An unconventional murder mystery takes a sharp look at racism and Islamophobia in America”) and Publishers Weekly.  Here is the publisher’s discussion guide. 

All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney

 ALL-AMERICAN MUSLIM GIRL by Nadine Jolie Courtney is an #OwnVoices young adult novel which deals with colorism and religion.  The book begins powerfully with a scene on an airplane where the main character, teenager Allie Abraham, has to defuse another passenger’s concern about Allie’s Dad speaking Arabic on a phone call. Allie thinks, “Smiling is key. It confuses them. Anger … indignation … that’s a luxury we don’t have.”  Although Allie’s Dad is often marked as different (“From Somewhere Else”), her heritage is Circassian so with reddish-blonde hair and hazel eyes, she looks like other light-skinned Muslims from the Caucasus region and is more readily accepted. That causes Allie to struggle with questions of identity, thinking: “Maybe I’m betraying my fellow Muslims by stuffing half of my identity away. Maybe I’m just a cowardly traitor dripping in white privilege.” 

The author spends quite a while setting up the premise and introducing other characters, like Wells, a boyfriend for Allie, but the story gradually builds momentum and interest again as Allie decides to learn more about the Arabic language and the Qur’an, joining a small group of new friends to discuss Islam and women’s rights. Allie struggles with maintaining friendships, with conflicts with her own parents, and with pressures from Wells’ Dad, a kind of anti-immigrant “shock jock.” In addition to many questions about being an ally, prejudice, and bias, middle school and early high school readers will find much to relate to here: “I’ve spent my entire life like an outsider: the perennial new girl, forever the tiniest bit out of sync.” ALL-AMERICAN MUSLIM GIRL received multiple (Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly) starred reviews and I expect to see it on state award lists in the next few years.

On a related note, here is some information from School Library Journal, which in addition to promoting the We Need Diverse Books initiative, says “The American Library Association’s ‘Great Stories Club’ series on Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation is a valuable resource. The reading and discussion program curates a list of books to help readers engage with the topic of racial healing. [Also,] We Stories is dedicated to encouraging white Americans to read diverse books with their children in order to decrease and counteract racial bias. Check out the facts and research on the ways children experience race to better understand how and why reading racially diverse titles for kids and teens can make such a big impact.”