This book is by an Australian writer, Randa Abdul-Fattah, who also wrote Does My Head Look Big In This? The story is about a Lebanese-Australian girl, who goes by the Anglicized nickname of Jamie. She hides her ethnic identity at school, afraid that students there will not be able to see past her Middle Eastern identity, but in the process, she hides so much of herself that she has no identity. Dancing on the edge of a "popular" group of kids, she bites her tongue when Peter, an attractive but obviously obnoxious guy, uses a variety of insulting epithets on other students.
While there is much in the story that is predictable and secondary characters are sometimes drawn in broad brushstrokes, the character of Jamie really shines through, and the annoying kids are totally recognizable. The story works, as much fiction does, because the specific situation of the character as a Lebanese-Australian hiding her homelife and background will be recognizable to any secondary school student who feels different or embarrassed about their family (uh, that would be all of them), or tempted to go against one's own values to hang with the "in" crowd.
No comments:
Post a Comment