It Ain't So Awful, Falafel

It Ain't So Awful, Falafel

Juvenile fiction
"After 'dinner,' I go in the living room, where my parents are
listening to the radio in silence. The reporter is interviewing some
of the families of the hostages. We'd been hoping they would all be
released before Thanksgiving. My mom keeps saying that she feels
especially sorry for the two women. My dad keeps saying he never
imagined that Iran would be the enemy of the world.
I wish we could just be like everyone else in Newport Beach,
worrying whether or not we're going to have time to buy all the gifts
on our Christmas list, wrap them, and bake cookies shaped like candy
canes. I'd gladly trade unemployment and dead hamsters for those
worries any day."
Zomorod Yousefzadeh, the protagonist of Firoozah Dumas' It Ain't
So Awful, Falafel, originally from Iran, moves with her parents to
Newport Beach, California just in time to start sixth grade. This
time she is going to fit in and not be the strange foreign kid. She's
even picked out an American name--Cindy--gleaned from the Brady Bunch,
a period tv show. (If you haven't seen it, don't bother).
Things seem to start out well. Cindy finds her classes easy.
She makes really good friends. She enjoys Girl Scouts and adores
sleep away camp.
But clouds are looming on the horizon. In Iran Ayatollah
Khomeini has ascended to power, taking revenge on anyone who could
possibly have been an ally to the Shah. Friends and even family
members could be in dire peril.
"It is the first time in my entire life that the shah is no
longer the ruler. I have a huge science test today, but I feel like
my brain has just frozen. I wish my dad could write a note: Please
excuse Cindy from the test today. Our country just had a revolution."
Then there's the hostage crisis. As the number of days the
Americans are held captive in Iran lengthens thngs start getting ugly
in the United States. There are hateful bumper stickers and an act so
vicious Cindy hides it from her disheartened parents.
Speaking of this semi autobiographical novel, Dumas says:
"I hope that reading this book will increase your interest in
history. I used to think that history was just about memorizing dates
of battles, but history is really stories about people and the battles
we fight within. It's about all the stuff you don't see on the
evening news. It's about hopes, dreams, and popular music. The life
you are living right now will someday be history.
How will you tell it?"
If that isn't a challenge, I don't know what is.
On a personal note, yesterday I tabled at the UMaine Student
Organization Fair all four hours for Wilson Center. We got lots of
interest. In the evening we had the first Wilson Center Wednesday
supper of the semester. We got a bunch of freshpeople who I hope will
become regulars.
A great big shout out goes out to my Wilson Center family.
jules hathaway



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