contemplative
Jamila hides her true identity as a Muslim Lebanese in her school by wearing colored contact lenses and bleaching her hair blonde. She hears the racial slurs and the comments made by her Aussie classmates about Muslims and simply ignores them. It is not that Jamila (known as Jamie at school) hates her heritage. She does enjoy her weekends with fellow Muslims and is in a band that plays ethnic music. However, from her perspective, she knows that blending in means being safe from the school bullies.
I listened to this book in audio format and found it engaging. Jamila has a wonderful sense of humor. The family deals with their own struggles caused by being drawn between the culture of their homeland and their religion and contemporary culture. Abdel-Fattah handles these topics sensitively. Despite the setting in another country and the need to listen carefully to the accents of Jamila and her family and friends at the outset, this is a book that should resonate with any teen who has been made to feel like an outsider.