January 2024
I am participating in @the_fold's #readingchallenge again this year, and was excited to pick this book up as part of January's prompt: a book by a Palestinian author. I had requested The Called me a Lioness by Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri on @netgalley quite a while back but with the constant straining conflict in Palestine and Israel, it is one that I knew I needed to pick up.
I don't want to get into too much detail on Social Media about my personal feelings and opinions about this war, mostly because I do not feel educated enough to be commenting on it, but I do feel it is our duty to learn about the history and the problems and call for change and support. Tamimi does a fantastic job giving the important background details juxtaposed with the current atrocities occurring in recent years. Near the end there is a large paragraph that I highlighted and think really summarizes the book. Essentially, Tamimi asks readers to consider, what if this was you, your family, your country, how would you respond, and how will you decide what you will do now that you known the truth about what the Palestinians are facing. Learning is a great first step, but action is also important.
I would definitely recommend this book and would like to thank the publisher, @randomhouse and #netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review this book.
What other books should I read to learn more? I would love some recommendations! I also look foward to seeing what other people doing the #foldchallenge2024 read this month!
February 2024 - A Book that has been challenged in Canadian Schools
I went a little overboard with this prompt and spent the whole month read and reviewing banned and challenged books. Check out my journey in this separate blog post here: https://teachreadinspire.wixsite.com/website/post/banned-and-challenged-book-reviews
March 2024 - A Young Adult Mystery by a Racialized Author
I have been meaning to read The Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf since I was approved for it on Netgalley in February 2022... It has a prominent shelf placement in my school library (which is great!) and so I also see it at work almost daily and it reminds me of how I really should have prioritized it sooner! I'm really glad I did finally get to reading it, and the timing is perfect with this fold prompt!
The Queen of the Tiles takes place over the course of one weekend in a hotel/conference centre where a teen scrabble competition brings together a unique cast of characters still reeling after the sudden death of the former champion, Trina, exactly one year prior. Najwa and her fellow competitors are all vying for the coveted role of champion, and but can't help but be distracted when messages and instagram posts begin trickling in through Trina's account. How can someone who they all watched die suddenly start posting on instagram? And what secrets are these posts trying to reveal? Najwa knows her best friend is dead, but this unusual social media activity makes her start to question whether or not Trina's death really was an accident. And with everyone back together again, maybe now is the perfect time to find out what really happened that fateful day one year ago.
I really enjoyed this book. It is a fantastic clean YA, with enough twists and turns to keep readers interested without anything that might be inappropriate for younger YA readers. I truly was guessing as to what exactly happened to Trina right up until the end of the book. The characters were interesting and well developed and the writing was really well done. My only uncertainty had to do with the setting, as I may have missed or was unaware that it took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, so there was the odd word or description I didn't quite understand right away, but I love that it is set there and that it exposes readers (especially those like the ones at my school in North America) to stories set in other countries and featuring diverse characters!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read this fantastic book. My only wish is that I got to it sooner than I did!