A very large expanse of sea

Title:

Author:

Mafi, Tahereh, author.

Personal Author:

Mafi, Tahereh, author.

ISBN:

9780062866561

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

310 pages ; 22 cm

Abstract:

2002. A year after 9/11, it's an extremely turbulent time politically for Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who's tired of being stereotyped. She's tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments, even the physical violence she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. Now she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother. When she meets Ocean James., he seems to want to get to know Shirin. They seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds -- and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she's not sure she'll ever be able to let it down. -- adapted from jacket

A year after 9/11, Muslim teenager Shirin has completely withdrawn from social life, until she meets Ocean James in her biology class and is tempted to actually let her guard down.

Subject Term:

First loves -- Juvenile fiction.

Iranian Americans -- Fiction.

Muslim teenagers -- Juvenile fiction.

Prejudices -- Juvenile fiction.

Young adult fiction.

First loves -- Fiction.

Love -- Fiction.

Muslim teenagers -- Fiction.

Prejudices -- Fiction.

Genre:

Historical fiction.

Romance fiction.

Summary:

A year after 9/11, Muslim teenager Shirin has completely withdrawn from social life, until she meets Ocean James in her biology class and is tempted to actually let her guard down.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Broad Rock	Book	FICTION MAFI	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Hull Street	Book	FICTION MAFI	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature!

From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Shatter Me series comes a powerful, heartrending contemporary novel about fear, first love, and the devastating impact of prejudice.

It's 2002, a year after 9/11. It's an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who's tired of being stereotyped.

Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. She's tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments--even the physical violence--she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. So she's built up protective walls and refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt her. Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother.

But then she meets Ocean James. He's the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin. It terrifies her--they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds--and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she's not sure she'll ever be able to let it down.

Reviews (2)

Horn Book Review

Just after 9/11, Iranian American teen Shirin is jaded by the Islamophobic attitudes of classmates who see her as either "the Taliban" or "an exotic specimen." She copes by intimidating others with her acerbic wit and by stereotyping white Americans--until she falls for the star of the boys' basketball team. A quirky, broadly appealing romance that also explores white privilege, microaggressions, and the effects of stereotyping on young Muslim women. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Review

After attending three different high schools, Shirin's used to finding her way in new places.Unlike her brother, Navid, she lies low, earbuds under her headscarf, ignoring all the racist comments thrown her way. Shirin doesn't take all the bull of her white classmates and their racist ignorance. But two things make this new school different: break-dancing and Ocean, the white lab partner who seems to see beyond Iranian-American Shirin's hijab. She can't get Ocean off her mind: Although he annoys her with his constant questions and texts, which keep eating at her data limit, Ocean forces her to open up. She even takes him out to watch break-dance tournaments, the one diverse place in her life where she doesn't feel alone in a crowd of whiteness. Shirin keeps waiting for Ocean to get bored or to realize that being with her could cost him his friends, his family, and potentially his basketball scholarship. But Ocean doesn't seem to care about other peoplewhat they think, how they act, or what they believe. Even so, their relationship threatens to upend the cultural norms of American suburbia. This gripping political romance takes readers into the life of a young Muslim woman trying to navigate high school with the entire world attacking her right to her body and her faith. A moving coming-of-age narrative about the viciousness of Islamophobia and the unwavering power of love in post-9/11 America. (Fiction. 12-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.