Kareem Between (National Book Award Winner)

by Shifa Saltagi Safadi

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Middle school is hard enough, but things are extra difficult for Kareem right now. A coming-of-age tale about growing up with one foot in two cultures and countries, Shifa Saltagi Safadi balances a young boy’s anxieties over school with real-world issues. This is a poetic story of family and finding home.

This award-winning, heartfelt coming-of-age novel in verse tells the powerful story of a seventh-grade Syrian American boy and his struggles, big and small, as he navigates middle school.

"The exact type of book I would've loved, and needed, as a kid." —Jasmine Warga, New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Honor recipient for Other Words for Home

Seventh grade begins, and Kareem’s already fumbled it.

His best friend moved away, he messed up his tryout for the football team, and because of his heritage, he was voluntold to show the new kid—a Syrian refugee with a thick and embarrassing accent—around school. Just when Kareem thinks his middle school life has imploded, the hotshot QB promises to get Kareem another tryout for the squad. There’s a catch: to secure that chance, Kareem must do something he knows is wrong.

Then, like a surprise blitz, Kareem’s mom returns to Syria to help her family but can’t make it back home. If Kareem could throw a penalty flag on the fouls of his school and home life, it would be for unnecessary roughness.

Kareem is stuck between. Between countries. Between friends, between football, between parents—and between right and wrong. It’s up to him to step up, find his confidence, and navigate the beauty and hope found somewhere in the middle.

** Winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature** Global Read Aloud Selection ** School Library Journal Best Middle Grade Book ** Chicago Public Library Best Fiction for Older Readers ** PEOPLE Magazine Best Kids Book ** Junior Library Guild Selection** Texas Lone Star Reading List selection ** Common Sense Media Selection for Families** Cybils Novel in Verse Award Winner** Jane Addams Children Book Award Finalist** ILA Notable Book for a Global Society** Bank Street's Best Children's Books of the Year**

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593699263
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	09/10/2024
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)
Lexile:	NP (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

SHIFA SALTAGI SAFADI is the National Book Award winning author of Kareem Between, the Amina Banana series, and several picture books, including The Gift of Eid. She has a bachelor’s degree in English literature, is a former English teacher, and is passionate about spreading her love of reading and writing through school visits and story-times. Shifa was born in Syria and immigrated to the US with her parents as a young girl. She lives near Chicago with her husband and four children.

Visit Shifa online at ShifaSafadi.com and on Instagram @ShifaSaltagiSafadi

Read an Excerpt

Fall 2016
Prepare to Play
The day of the first 
school game,
the team marches down the halls together,
loud with laughter,
matching jerseys filling their faces with triumph,
applause around them as they prepare to play while
I
flatten my b
o d
y against the lockers,
                                         moving
                                         out of their way.
All I can think is if I was on the team,
I wouldn’t 
be invisible.

Stadium
It seems like everyone in 
Chesterton comes to the first game,
the silver and red colors of 
our Bulldogs streaked on hundreds of faces,
wide smiles,
spirits high,
arms waving,
loud voices in the stands chanting the school spirit song,
the barely fall breeze of September flowing around us.
It takes 
only one quarter for everyone to realize our team isn’t going to win.
Austin’s tosses fall shorter,
Coach’s yells get louder,
and the 
number of fans in the stands gets smaller.
I feel like I’m rewatching last Sunday’s game,
rewatching Jay Cutler 
get sacked five times,
rewatching Bears fans 
leaving to 
avoid seeing a game 
end so low it crushes us to the ground.

Late Fall 2016
Division
In the book
The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary
the fifth graders don’t want their school 
shut down.
Because their class would be
                         divi          ded.
Because when friendships fr      ,
classes are lonely.
Months shuffle forward,
books my only companions,
lessons and learning all I do.
I hide in the library to escape the embarrassment of where to sit at lunch,
but even my favorite books don’t distract me from 
my despair.
I text Adam about how awful school is without him,
almost as awful as the Bears’ season has been.
Their loss in October against the Packers left a bitter taste in my mouth that hasn’t disappeared all of November.
                        I’m thinking
                        of switching teams, bruh.
BOOM.
My book falls 
out from my hand onto the school hall floor.
Adam’s moving on from the Bears?
From our team?

Free Agent
Adam 
and me were more 
than friends.
We were brothers,
since kindergarten.
Before we learned our letters,
we learned to toss a foam football.
Back and forth and forth and 
back.
Adam’s the one who 
first taught me the game,
about the Monsters of the Midway,
Da Bears.
We watched replays,
studied Super Bowl XX
over and over,
and together,
we drew dreams of being the next 
Super Bowl stars,
of bringing the Bears 
back to 
sweet greatness.
Adam was the lineman to my QB,
the one who had my back,
the encouragement in my ear that helped me play.
He was my link to the game.
Like a free agent without a team,
when Adam 
left,
my link was bro
         ken.

Editorial Reviews

★ “A masterfully written, deeply resonant tale.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

★ “Dynamic and engaging, drawing readers in from page one….a story of identity, growing up, standing up for what’s right, and boyhood.”—School Library Journal (starred review)

“A beautiful story of hope, empathy, confidence, and courage”—Teen Librarian Toolkit

“Heartfelt and personal…. a tale of true depth.”—The Horn Book

“For fans of Kwame Alexander, Daniel Nayeri, and sports-heavy books with broad appeal.”—Booklist

“Riveting, powerful, and soul-stirring, this is a beautifully written story of triumph amid tragedy.”— S. K. Ali, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author

“An immersive story that captures the nuances of middle school friendships, family challenges, and the difficult realities of being “stuck” between two different worlds.”—Maleeha Siddiqui, acclaimed author of Barakah Beats and Any Way You Look

“Safadi cleverly weaves together spare verse, creating an emotionally compelling and action-packed story.”—Reem Faruqi, award-winning author of Unsettled

“Kareem’s story will pull you in with each emotion-filled play and pass…. an important addition to middle grade literature, a new perspective we desperately need to find hope and empathy in our divided world.”—Aida Salazar, award-Winning author of Ultraviolet

From the Publisher

Narrator Peter Romano's soft voice is at an appropriate volume for Syrian American Kareem, a middle child who feels unseen at home and at school. Kareem's deep feelings are revealed through the verses delivered by Romano. He narrates attentively with careful attention to the football idioms and metaphors that depict Kareem's passion. Romano's ability to shift between Syrian and American accents illuminates how Kareem is caught between cultures: For example, he acts with cruelty toward a recent immigrant his age while going against his own integrity to benefit an American friend. Romano's emotions deepen at the passing of Executive Order 13769, which denies Kareem's grandfather needed entry to the U.S. for medical treatment and sends his mother's home to care for him. S.W. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2024 - AudioFile

★ 2024-05-30
A football-loving, Syrian American Muslim boy must find the courage to confront feelings of being stuck in between the worlds of home, school, and wider society.

The start of seventh grade couldn’t have gone worse for Kareem: His best friend moved away, and Kareem was cut from the football team. His integrity is challenged when a chance for a spot on next year’s team comes with strings attached—helping Austin, the coach’s son, cheat by writing an essay for him. Kareem’s desire to fit in also affects Fadi, the Syrian Christian refugee classmate his mom has asked him to help. Tensions rise when Kareem’s mom is stranded in war-torn Syria as she tries to bring his grandparents to the U.S. Now Kareem must find confidence at school (where xenophobic Austin bullies Fadi) and at home (where Mama’s absence is keenly felt). Safadi’s verse novel is set during the 2016-17 school year, amid the build-up to then–President Donald Trump’s executive order affecting travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Syria. The author uses line breaks, concrete poetry, and changes in the alignment of the text to powerfully and evocatively convey conflict between senses of identity and self and to accentuate the story’s action. She seamlessly integrates football, literary, Islamic, and Arabic language references into the plot. The book’s messages of finding the confidence to stand up against injustice and be true to one’s heritage is critically expressed without feeling contrived.

A masterfully written, deeply resonant tale. (author’s note)(Verse fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews