The Next New Syrian Girl

YA fiction 

     Ream Shukairy's The Next New Syrian Girl is a treasure in the diverse and inclusive literature genre.  Shukairy's writing is so vivid and evocative it gives white readers like me entrance into a world we probably never imagined.  In addition to offering up a suspenseful narrative she deftly touches heart, mind, and soul.

     Khadija is a Syrian American high school senior who clashes a lot with her micromanaging mother who seems to be driving her whole family away.  Her father is usually at work when he isn't sleeping.  Her younger brother, Zain, drifts through life like a ghost, rarely even eating with his family.  And Khadija is tired of all the guilt trips her Mommy Dearest never gets tired of laying on her.

     "She means I'd make her proud if I were more proper Syrian like her.  But if I give up even an inch of my territorial control, no matter how sensible, Mama would move on full offensive to ensure that I never boxed again.  This weekly conversation barely travels from Mama's core principal: her daughter, of all people, should not box."

     You can imagine how Khadija feels (clue: thrilled is not the word) when, at a party she's forced to attend in clothes her mother picked out, her mom tells her that two new refugees from their homeland will be moving into their home:  a woman and her teenager who seems to embody all the virtues of the proper Syrian daughter.

     "My skin crawls as the khalehs practically coo at her.

     My mother included."

     Leene, the new girl has been through a lot.  In Syria her father had died.  Her older brother had disappeared in a town where many people died agonizing attacks in a sarin gas attack.  She and her mother had fled with her beloved little brother Mustafa through country after country until he dies when the boat they are on is attacked.  

     So now she is living in the home of someone who resents her presence.  She knows that Syrian etiquette would have her leave.

     "But I also know that Mama and I have nowhere else to go.  The cost of rent for us is unmanageable.  We have to make do until Mama and I have jobs and we can get ourselves on our own feet."

     But one day, peeking secretly at Leene's family photographs, Khadija sees a little boy with a blue blanket who looks an awful lot like a child in an orphanage picture.  Maybe Mustafa didn't die at sea.  Maybe he's alive.

     Maybe two teens can travel half way around the world and rescue him.

     The book, however, contains much more than a truly engaging and suspenseful narrative.  It powerfully counteracts the belief that refugees are the pitiful scum of the world or just want to take advantage of American generosity.  It shows Syrian refugees as people forced to leave a beloved country with a rich culture by forces way beyond their control.

     This would be a great book club choice, especially for a mother-daughter book club.

On a  purrrsonal note, I have been on cloud 9 since Friday afternoon.  That was when I received feedback on my portfolio which was the ungraded part of my internship class.  Leah considers it as really well written.  She's very proud of how much I've grown and achieved this semester.  I have an A.  Only the letter grade doesn't mean as much to me as achieving what I have and making my beloved advisor proud of me.  (Jules)

Well party on!  We are celebrating good times!  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to Leah.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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