All-American Muslim Girl

Starred review from September 30, 2019
Living just outside Atlanta, Allie Abraham is the daughter of a Texas-born American history professor who is Circassian. Allie has hazel eyes, pale skin, and blonde hair, and she’s always been encouraged to keep her Muslim heritage secret for safety and convenience
(“I don’t trigger people’s radar”), but when she’s out with her father, people “take one look and decide he’s clearly From Somewhere Else.” Now, feeling compelled to embrace the religion her father turned away from, she begins to explore what it means to be Muslim while encountering prejudice in the American South, including from those who don’t consider her “Muslim enough.” At the same time, Allie begins falling for cute fellow student Wells Henderson, who happens to be related to a nationally known Islamophobic bigot. Courtney (Romancing the Throne) examines matters of subtle and blatant Islamophobia, privilege and erasure, and questions of faith and identity with a sensitivity born of experience and respect. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jess Regel, Foundry Literary + Media.

Narrator Priya Ayyar immediately communicates the wit of high school student Allie Abraham. She looks like an all-American white girl and is more opposed to bigotry than her Christian-born mother and nonpracticing Muslim-born father. Her close relationship with her parents and their protective attitude toward her are made clear as she mocks a xenophobic newscaster and then confronts someone who is Islamophobic. Ayyar soon makes known Allie's divided soul. She longs to connect with her Muslim heritage in a way her father has not. The divide deepens as Ayyar reveals Allie's burgeoning first love for Wells, a genuinely caring teen who happens to be the son of the hateful newscaster she abhors. Ayyar lends believability to Allie's explorations of religion, sexism, discrimination, and herself. S.W. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine