Zara Hussain Is Here

YA fiction 

     "My presentation in class has reminded me that I exist in a sort of no-man's-land.  I wasn't born here, but I don't remember much of Pakistan, and I can't imagine what my life would be like if I still lived there.  But I know how a lot of people here feel about immigrants.

     So...where do I belong?"

     When Zara, protagonist of Sabina Khan's Zara Hussain Is Here, was a toddler her family moved to America to give her better opportunities.  Corpus Christi, Texas is the only place that feels like home to her.  But she's constantly aware that many people, because of her color and religion, see her as dangerous, an other who can never really be assimilated, an alien who must be deported back to where she came from.

     One of these people is Tyler, a football player at her Catholic school.  He keeps her on edge with his arrogant racist comments.  Then one day he crosses a line, painting a racist message on her locker.  A witness reveals his identity and he is suspended.

     A loud noise wakes Zara up in the middle of the night.  There are footsteps outside her house.  The words Go Home Terrorist are spray painted on her garage door.  Tyler is spotted running away.

     Zara's father, sure that calling the police will be a futile gesture, goes over to Tyler's house, hoping to speak to his father.  Only that goes horribly wrong.  Zara and her mother get a call from the hospital notifying them that he has been shot.

     Police arrive at the hospital.  Zara's father, in a coma, is charged with trespassing and threatening.  Tyler's father is claiming self defense, insisting that her father was carrying a weapon.

     The family has been working for years on getting their green cards.  Now they're in danger of having to return to a country in which Zara would be a stranger, one in which her sexual orientation could put her in peril.

     Khan's own family spent years in the United States, only to have the whole process undone by a clerical error.

     "The precariousness of the Hussain family's immigration status is a permanent fixture in the US today, and Zara struggles to feel what so many others seem to take for granted: a sense of belonging."

     This book is truly engaging.  Every time I read some more I got caught up in Zara's plight.  One morning if the bus driver hadn't known I was waiting for her vehicle and stopped right in front of me that big red bus would have rumbled right past my clueless self.

On a purrrsonal note, it's me, the gorgeous one, with real international Lunar New Year news.  While other countries move into the year of the rabbit Vietnam will be rocking year of the cat.  I saw Google pictures of the beautiful art work they're putting up.  In my very biased opinion they have made the purrrfect choice.  (Tobago)

I couldn't agree more.  (Jules)

A great big shout out goes out to the Vietnamese.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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