by Nina Hamza, 310 pages, Grades 7 and up.

Ahmed is not excited about moving to his father’s hometown of Minnesota. Apart from the surroundings and weather being pretty much the polar opposite to what he is used to having grown up his whole life in Hawaii, it also means trying to fit in in a whole new school environment in middle school. First of all, the kids in Minnesota seem to have never met anyone with the name Ahmed before and can’t seem to pronounce it right, in fact, maybe these kids have never met anyone Muslim before either. Even though it is not easy to find a community in his new school, most of the kids are, at least, trying to be kind. That is, except Jack, who seems determined to crush Ahmed’s spirit and ruin his chances for finding friends here. Jack, unfortunately,  is Ahmed’s neighbor and so Ahmed is unable to avoid his bully, and Jack doesn’t seem to care that Ahmed is going through one of the most challenging moments of his life. Ahmed’s family moved to Minnesota to try to save his father’s life; the hospital there is one of the few in the country that has the new treatment that might keep his father from succumbing to the genetic disease that killed his uncle. It is a lot for Ahmed to carry, and it remains to be seen if these obstacles will help Ahmed become a better person, or if they will break him entirely.

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If you enjoy books about finding friends, personal identity and growing up, you might also like: Every Soul a Star, by Wendy Mass, Crunch, by Leslie Connor, Here to Stay, by Sara Farizan, Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now, by Dana Davis, or My Basmati Bat Mitzvah, by Paula J. Freedman.

Tags: bullying, coming of age, racism, friendship, school stories, Hawaii, Minnesota, moving