Fuelled by the guilt of getting her friends in trouble, she resolves to try out a newer, “nicer” version of herself in a place where no one knows her. I honestly never thought I'd ever get the chance to read a book like this. My heart is so full and I'm so grateful to have been given the chance to read and review this. I think every Muslim will appreciate the effort that was put into this. I hope this book also helps change the perception of Muslims in the world right now. Because I read this and I felt represented like never before. It brings tears to my eyes just typing this. I want the world to read this book and see things from our point of view. See the way we live and how it's so unlike what is shown on the media today.

Common Sense is the nation's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of all kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in the 21st century. ON THE MORNING OF SATURDAY, March 14, fourteen-year-old Adam Chen went to the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. I was getting tired of the books that were getting published that featured Muslim characters for the sake of fulfilling the status quo. I wanted there to be depth to these stories, to showcase what the Muslim identity is and portray the Islamic faith. I loved Adam and Zeynab. I loved that they were connected to their faith and appreciated it. Their families warmed my heart and I enjoyed the differences in their personality and getting to know them. Reading this book, a few things came home to me—things I had always known but that had to been buried under the days of my life. It was as if a clawed hand had sunk its talons into my mind, cutting through memories, letting emotion bleed. One memory, in particular, suddenly afflicted me afresh as poignantly as if it happened minutes before.In her second novel, S.K. Ali strikes a balance between charming love story and issue-driven narrative, in which Muslim teen characters confront and overcome Islamophobia, racism, and ignorance. Love from A to Z follows protagonists Zayneb and Adam, who travel to Doha, Qatar – from the U.S. and the U.K. respectively – and are continually brought together by what Adam calls “serendipity.” I also really loved the non-romantic relationships the characters had as well. There was a lot of focus on family, like Zayneb’s aunt and Adam’s sister, and both characters’ parents too. They both are still learning how to deal with grief, though, with Zayneb mourning the recent loss of her grandmother, and Adam trying to figure out what it means that he is diagnosed with the very illness that killed his mother when he was younger. The reality: raise my hand, challenge his BS, get my words twisted, sulk, and, to finish off, pen my anger on a piece of paper. Miss Malik, do you realize this could be considered expulsion worthy? A threat, with a weapon, directed at a teacher? Kerr stared at me. No, there’s the other kind too, and it’s a more prevalent kind: the slow, steady barrage of tiny acts of prejudice, these your-people-are-trash lightsaber cuts that tear and peel strips off your soul until you can’t feel your numbed heart any longer.

Fencer jumped off the desk and awarded us with his you-got-it stance: hands on his corduroy hips, legs apart, face beaming. Yes, or, to put it more precisely, you can say that it looks like the majority of those countries follow Islam. Anything else? Zee-naab? Adam and Zayneb fall in love but share a value regarding dating: no kissing, touching, or sexting. Characters kiss in the epilogue. But maybe Kerr saw my wet eyes. Because suddenly she cleared her throat, and when she next spoke, her voice was calmer. “The only reason we’ve decided to give Miss Malik a week’s suspension instead —which will go into her records, by the way—is due to her exemplary academic record over the years. I’ll see this as a terrible, terrible decision she’s made. Mr. Fencer agrees with me on this.” Her voice hardened again. “But give me one more thing to make me reconsider, Miss Malik, and we may be seeing your college future at stake. I will not hesitate to make that so.” Beside Mom, Fencer sighed as if he were pondering college-less me. Anger welled and churned inside. Eat them alive. I’m going to get him. I’m going to get Fencer. • • • As soon as we got in the car and she turned the ignition, Mom began. “I never thought we’d have this sort of trouble with you, Zayneb. A threat against your teacher? A knife?” “It wasn’t a threat! It was about getting him fired. And the knife was a butter knife. I was just about to draw the fork.” I frowned at the front of Alexander Porter High with its ugly green double doors. “We didn’t bring you up like this. I’m ashamed.” Mom’s voice was small, which meant it was going to be the crying kind of lecture. “You didn’t say anything!” I turned to her. “Nothing about what he’s doing! You acted like it was my fault!” “I can’t prove anything about your teacher. Every time Dad and I offered to talk to him before, you said no.” With the car stopped where the entrance of the school parking lot met the road, she glanced at me, mouth trembling slightly. “Can’t you just graduate in peace?” “You mean, Shut up, Zayneb! Don’t make a scene, Zayneb!” I put my hand on the door handle. “Can I get out? I’ll just walk home like I always do.” She let me. the only issue i had with the book was that the romance was a liiiittle too fast to start with. they were doing the mental 'it's better we dont get involved with each other, i'll just ignore them' just a couple meetings in Love from A to Z is one of the most unapologetically Muslim books that I’ve ever read, and I’m so glad it exists. It resonated in chambers of my heart I’d never known existed. There is still an expansiveness in my chest that reminds me of how important voices like these are, for readers like us. This feeling is a language all its own: to reach and find, to be reached for and found, to belong to a mutual certainty.Another virtual hug for the author for writing a love story without preaching the rules of Religion. there was no sex, no kisses and nothing added to sound edgy and cool! (I am throwing shades at another author here ahem ahem!). Families can talk about the racism and bigotry that Zayneb encounters in Love from A to Z. What do you think of how she handles her encounters with the woman on the plane and the man at the pool? What would you have done? This memory remained a thorn in my side, buried too deep to dig out. My decision to take off my hijab, I had come to realize years later, is in a large part because of what happened that day. When I took off my hijab at 17, I didn’t look closely at why I did it. The whole thing was a non-event: I remember walking into the kitchen and casually announcing my decision to my mom. I remember her laughing and teasing me about it (“well, I didn’t tell you to put it on in the first place, now did I!”). My mom is a hijabi; she told me an anecdote about how she started wearing a hijab at the age of 25, a few months after marrying my dad, and how some people thought my dad might have had something to do with it. My mom grinned at me and said, “your dad had nothing to do with it. I just wanted to—so I did it.”

tw: racism, islamophobia, xenophobia, death of a loved one (in the past), mentions of rape/honour killings, discussions of victims of war (drone killings), cultural appropriation, chronic illness (multiple sclerosis). You’re going to use this article to do an analysis with the graphic organizer I modeled last class. Assignment due Wednesday, before break, no extensions. Questions? This is definitely a very romance-centered book, so if you’re not into that, this might not be for you. (In fact, the opening quote is, “This is a love story. You’ve been warned.”) But I was in the mood for a light, cute romance, and this book definitely delivered on that; I thought Adam and Zayneb’s relationship was well-developed, especially for being a meet-cute, and I smiled so many times while listening to the audiobook. Zayneb is a Muslim girl of Pakistani and Caribbean descent. After going head to head with her extremely Islamophobic social studies teacher, she is sent to Qatar to visit her aunt to cool down. On the plane ride over, she is seated next to an Islamophobic woman, whose loud protest at being seated next to Zayneb is rewarded by a move to first class. It isn't all bad, though - she has an empty seat to herself, now, and a cute boy on the plane smiles at her. Mike’s hand shot up, already homing in to ace this one. Sir, do we compare American culture and this particular culture?I couldn’t stop myself from jumping up. I went to stand in front of them, my arms open slightly, a hug cue. The whole idea of the book was to be realistic fiction of two persons who were both struggling with life's unpleasant stuff (like health issues and social stigma) and somehow, they manage to find each other and get to fall in love. In a beautiful and simple way. Yesterday I took the thin pieces of grooved balsa wood and fit them together in a grid pattern inside the box I’d already made. As the square compartments revealed themselves, smooth and flush without any screws or nails, I thought about touch. She lifted her carry-on suitcase and slammed it into the overhead bin so hard, I was sure she damaged the wheels on it. I also appreciated how through her characters main and side alike, the author showed so many different Muslim experiences. From Zayneb who was born and raised Muslim, to Adam who converted at eleven, including her mom who converted when she got married and his dad when he was grieving his own wife. And I love how all the things that make them the Muslim people they are were thrown so casually, as it should be.