At school I'm Aussie-blonde Jamie -- one of the crowd. At home I'm Muslim Jamilah -- driven mad by my Stone Age dad. I should win an Oscar for my acting skills. But I can't keep it up for much longer...
Jamie just wants to fit in. She doesn't want to be seen as a stereotypical Muslim girl, so she does everything possible to hide that part of herself. Even if it means pushing her friends away because she's afraid to let them know her dad forbids her from hanging out with boys or that she secretly loves to play the darabuka (Arabic drums).
But when the cutest boy in school asks her out and her friends start to wonder about Jamie's life outside of school, her secrets threaten to explode. Can Jamie figure out how to be both Jamie and Jamilah before she loses everything?
Publishers Weekly
Jamilah Towfeek hides her Lebanese-Muslim background from the other kids at her Australian school to avoid people assuming I fly planes into buildings as a hobby. She dyes her hair blonde, wears blue contacts and stands by when popular kids make racist remarks. Passing as Jamie is fraught with difficulties: she can't invite friends to her house, lies to cover up her widower dad's strict rules and reveals her true self only to an anonymous boy she meets online (her e-mail address is Ten_Things_I_Hate_About_Me). Tensions at home and school culminate when the band she plays in at her madrassa (Islamic school) is hired to perform at her 10th-grade formal. Abdel-Fattah (Does My Head Look Big in This?) follows a predictable pattern and uses familiar devices, such as the understanding teacher (If [your friends] don't know the real you, then you've already lost them). On the other hand, the author brings a welcome sense of humor to Jamilah's insights about her culture, and she is equally adept at more delicate scenes, for example, Jamilah's father recounting memories of Jamilah's mother. For all the defining details, Jamilah is a character teens will readily relate to. Ages 12-up. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Categories:
- Teen & Young Adult
- Literature & Fiction
Publisher : Orchard Books
Author : Abdel-fattah, Randa
Language : English
Published :2009-01-01
Number Of Pages : 297
Binding : hardcover
ISBN-10 : 0545050553
ISBN-13 : 9780545050555
Item weight : 1.01 lb
Dimensions : 0.94 in x 5.79 in x 8.5 in
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