Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
I love books that introduce me to cultures other than my own, and especially when they show a character growing as in Drawing Deena (Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024) by Hena Khan. This story is a good reminder of how people are also so much the same.
Thirteen-year-old Deena is stressed. It starts out with a visit to the dentist–enough to stress many of us–then she finds out she needs an expensive night guard. And money is definitely a stressor in her family. She’d love to go on a school art field trip to see her favorite artist and take art classes to make her art better, but her parents, especially her mom, don’t think art is that important. Maybe Deena can show the value of her art by helping her mother with selling her Pakistani clothes. Maybe if the business is doing better, her parents will fight less. And maybe Deena won’t feel so anxious and so sick in the mornings.
This book deals so well with the fears and growing pains of being a middle school kid. Through the story Deena gets help and learns to be open and honest with her parents about her worries and what is important to her.
Bonus material in this story is Deena’s reaction to Van Gogh, the Immersive Experience. I recently attended this too, and along with Deena wish I could have seen one original Van Gogh.
Hena is an award-winning author of picture books and middle grade fiction. Read more about her here and check out her many other books here. (She’s one prolific writer!)
Written in the Stars (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2015) by Aisha Saeed is a heartbreaking story that needs to be told (and read). It’s natural for teens and parents to be in strife at some level, but in this story author Aisha Saeed casts the light on parent/daughter strife that has crossed into abuse when girls are forced into marriage.