#44-46: Randa Abdel-Fattah, Ying Chang Compestine
#44 & #45, Randa Abdel-Fattah, Ten Things I Hate About Me, Does My Head Look Big in This?:
Both books deal with Australian Muslim girls who are trying to figure out how to reconcile their religion with their lives, in different ways. In Ten Things I Hate About Me, Jamie dyes her hair blond and wears blue contacts at school in order to hide her Muslim self, Jamilah, and avoid being stereotyped. But she can't keep her secrets forever; eventually, she'll have to decide: Jamie or Jamilah? I thought the resolution a little too easy, but Abdel-Fattah provides an excellent, complex examination of passing. I especially liked her portrayal of Jamie's relationship with her traditional (what Jamie calls "Stone Age") father and her two siblings.
In Does My Head Look Big in This?, Amal decides to wear the hijab full time, in spite of worries about how others (especially the students at her school) will see her choice. I rather wish I'd read this before Ten Things I Hate About Me, because I didn't like it quite as much. It's very funny, and I liked clever Amal and her steadfast sense of herself, but I thought Abdel-Fattah tried too hard to make her points and erred on the side of preachiness. (Ten Things I Hate About Me, written afterward, was better, though.) Truthfully, I was rather more interested in the plight of Amal's friend Leila, who faces much more opposition from her parents as she tries to reconcile her religion and her gender, and the parts of the book dealing with her problems were my favorites.
#46: Ying Chang Compestine, Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party:
As Ling grows from nine to thirteen in Wuhan, China, her happy life she shares with her adored father and stern mother changes to a grim existence of survival during the last years of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. I admired this very much, especially the historical background, the elegant writing, and the beautifully handled child's point-of-view. I do wonder, though, whether it's one of those YA books that might work better for adults than kids; it's awfully grim, and I would imagine it would be confusing to a reader who knew nothing of the historical background. (Reading the afterword first might help with this, though.)
Both books deal with Australian Muslim girls who are trying to figure out how to reconcile their religion with their lives, in different ways. In Ten Things I Hate About Me, Jamie dyes her hair blond and wears blue contacts at school in order to hide her Muslim self, Jamilah, and avoid being stereotyped. But she can't keep her secrets forever; eventually, she'll have to decide: Jamie or Jamilah? I thought the resolution a little too easy, but Abdel-Fattah provides an excellent, complex examination of passing. I especially liked her portrayal of Jamie's relationship with her traditional (what Jamie calls "Stone Age") father and her two siblings.
In Does My Head Look Big in This?, Amal decides to wear the hijab full time, in spite of worries about how others (especially the students at her school) will see her choice. I rather wish I'd read this before Ten Things I Hate About Me, because I didn't like it quite as much. It's very funny, and I liked clever Amal and her steadfast sense of herself, but I thought Abdel-Fattah tried too hard to make her points and erred on the side of preachiness. (Ten Things I Hate About Me, written afterward, was better, though.) Truthfully, I was rather more interested in the plight of Amal's friend Leila, who faces much more opposition from her parents as she tries to reconcile her religion and her gender, and the parts of the book dealing with her problems were my favorites.
#46: Ying Chang Compestine, Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party:
As Ling grows from nine to thirteen in Wuhan, China, her happy life she shares with her adored father and stern mother changes to a grim existence of survival during the last years of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. I admired this very much, especially the historical background, the elegant writing, and the beautifully handled child's point-of-view. I do wonder, though, whether it's one of those YA books that might work better for adults than kids; it's awfully grim, and I would imagine it would be confusing to a reader who knew nothing of the historical background. (Reading the afterword first might help with this, though.)