YA or STFU

Lamba, Marie (2007). What I Meant--. NY: Random House Children's Books. 310 pages.

Sangeet "Sang" Jumnal just wants to go on a date. She knows one of her classmates, the hunky Jason, totally likes her and has even asked her out--kind of--but her parents forbid her to go out with a boy until she's 16 years old, a date that is months away. Unfortunately, what could be a successful campaign for early dating is effectively ruined by the involvement and constant presence of Sang's aunt Chachi, who has moved in with the Jumnal family following the death of her husband. Chachi, unlike the rest of Sang's blended Indian-American family, is uber-Indian, and harbors an intense dislike for Sang's Anglo mother and even Sang, herself. In fact, Chachi is so mean, she steals household items and blames their loss on Sang and manages to convince the whole family that Sang is both bulimic and a total whore. And Sang hasn't even kissed a boy! Couple this family conflict with a sudden rift between Sang and her best friend (who Sang worries might really be bulimic) and the drama abounds.

While the romance aspect of the novel didn't really reel me in the way it usually does (I could totally tell that Jason was a cad, WAY before Sang seemed to), Chachi's hijinks really hooked me. This lady was so evil! It was totally like shades from Nancy Werlin's The Killer's Cousin (a coincindence that begs the question, are relatives once removed destined to be evil?). Unfortunately, even though Chachi got her due in the end, the resolution wasn't nearly dramatic enough for me. There was an attempt as explaining Chachi's evil nature and a prefunctory casting out of the nasty aunt, but I wanted more. I guess this is really an indicant of the book's success on this front: I felt so sympathetic to Sang that I wanted revenge exacted on her behalf.

Posted by Amy P. at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Abel-Fattah, Randa (2007). Does My Head Look Big in This? NY: Orchard Books. 360 pages.
When practicing Muslim and eleventh grader Amal decides to adopt the practice of wearing a hijab, or headscarf, as an expression of her faith, she is somewhat surprised at the difficulty she encounters both at school and in her neighborhood. Even Amal's family discourages her and expresses concern for her safety; however, Amal remains strong and convinced that she can wear the hijab with style (even in conjunction with her school uniform). Once the visual marker of her faith is in place, Amal is surprised at the amount of subtle and not-so-subtle prejudice she faces. Conversely, the hijab also connects her to her faith in a new way and, she observes, to other women who wear the scarf as well.
I liked the mixture of school story and religious journey and the realistic way Abel-Fattah portrayed Amal's school and religious communities. There were two sub-plots that seemed a little heavy-handed: the first dealt with Amal's attempts to befriend a Greek neighbor and the second with the familial difficulty faced by another Muslim friend raised in more traditional environs. These issues aside, Does My Head Look Big was a thoughtful piece not unlike Blume's intro. to religion novel, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.

Posted by Amy P. at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Perkins, Mitali (2007). First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover. NY: Dutton Children's Books. 277 pages.
Sameera "Sparrow" Righton is the adopted Pakistani daughter of the very white Republican presidential candidate and has returned to the United States from her British boarding school to visit relatives and observe the campaign as it begins to heat up. After seeing some papparazzi photos taken of her looking pretty worse for wear after an overnight flight, Sparrow is excited to be made over by her father's team of public relations people. One designer wardrobe and team of hair and makeup experts later, Sparrow is the model president's daughter. There's only one problem: the PR team wants to add Sparrow's voice to her father's campaign by setting up a cheesy blog in her name. In retaliation, Sparrow starts her own semi-secret blog and (surprise!) ends up generating more youth support for her father through this grass roots effort than the Heavies in PR ever could.
It's really cool that more and more novels featuring South Asian characters are being published and this book by Perkins does a good job of incorporating some serious identity politics with popular literary convention. From the brief plot summary (above) you can probably guess at some of the internal conflicts; however, the central issue, detailing Sparrow's attempt to resolve her "All-American" identity and her Pakistani heritage is quite good and reads like a lighter Born Confused (Hidier, 2004). In an extra twist of irony, Sparrow discovers that she can outmaneuver the papparazzi by dressing in traditional South Asian garb, and uses this disguise to move freely in public. That the most conspicuous dress becomes a cloak of invisibility is both a dig at our Western tendency to fail to particularize "costumed natives" as well as an interesting argument for what some deem to be the restrictive garments associated with some South Asian women's wear.
According to Amazon, a sequal to this novel is coming out in 2008 and I'm totally planning to read it. Maybe in this one Perkins will address some Republican policy.

Posted by Amy P. at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)