Jamilah at the End of the World

by Mary-Lou Zeitoun

Overview

Seventeen-year-old Jamilah Monsour makes plans for what she's certain is the beginning of the climate change catastrophe that will end the world. Luckily, Jamilah knows what has to be done to save her family: reluctantly her parents allow her to transform the back alley garage into a bunker, but they draw the line when she announces she’s going to skip university and instead use the money they had saved for her education to buy solar panels and a generator.

When an electricity blackout strikes, Jamilah's climate change anxiety kicks into high gear and she ends up staying out all night, infuriating her father who is done with all this doomsday nonsense.

Distributed in the U.S by Lerner Publishing Group.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459416604
Publisher:	James Lorimer and Company Ltd., Publishers
Publication date:	01/01/2022
Pages:	152
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.75(h) x (d)
Lexile:	HL710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 11 Years

About the Author

Mary-Lou Zeitoun is a Palestinian-Canadian author, essayist, arts journalist, and activist. Her novel 13 was the YA winner of the 2008 New England Book Festival award. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

Editorial Reviews

2021-12-15
The Mansour family in Toronto is struggling through a summer heatwave, blackouts, and financial stresses.

At 17, Jamilah is the eldest child in her family; her father emigrated from Palestine, and her mother is White. Her anxiety over climate change pushes her to try to transform the family garage into a survival bunker—and that means figuring out how to buy a $2,000 generator. College is not on her mind even though her parents want her to attend. Climate change is what occupies Jamilah’s every waking thought, but no one else in the family seems to care about it. Her 15-year-old sister, Noor, works at a coffee shop and hangs out with her girlfriend, Beth. Her brother, George, 12, is obsessed with video games. Undeterred, Jamilah begins stockpiling canned goods, batteries, and other essentials for the climate apocalypse in her bedroom closet. But when a national climate protest is announced in Ottawa and a climate encampment group sets up in her neighborhood park, Jamilah is forced to think beyond her individual approach to survival, push beyond her comfort limits, and venture into other forms of climate action and community organizing. Chapters are prefaced by short lists of survival tips, and Jamilah’s worries will resonate with many readers. Palestinian cultural elements are woven throughout the book. Christian Jamilah expresses positive opinions about the hijab, but the framing of burqa-wearing as always taking place under duress feels oversimplified.

An appealing title for environmentally minded reluctant readers. (Fiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews

"An appealing title for environmentally minded reluctant readers."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher