Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi
Kareem is starting seventh grade. He really wants to be on the school football team. But he messes up his tryouts and does not make the team. He is also dealing with the fact that his best friend recently moved away, he feels his sister is his parents’ favorite child, his mom is making him show a new Syrian student, Fadi, around, which is not helping his popularity at school, and more! Randomly, the head quarterback of the football team starts talking to him one day at school. He tells Kareem that he can get a spot on the football team, but there is a catch. Kareem has to do something he is unsure he wants to do. Suddenly, his mom announces that she is heading to Syria to help out her family. Soon after, the family finds out there is a ban on Muslims coming to America, and this causes problems for his mom, and they aren’t sure when she will be able to come back.
As the title suggests, he is stuck between friends, countries, football, and right and wrong. Kareem has a lot on his plate at the moment. He is making a lot of bad choices and struggling to make things right again.
I am starting to love novels in verse. I am more prepared for the emotions that I know are there now. No surprises at this point. I felt so bad for Kareem; he just wants to be a normal kid. His biggest problem should be trying to make the football team, but instead, he is dealing with racism at his school and fear for his mother being stuck in Syria because of the Muslim ban. He is also learning to stand up for himself to the bullies around school who call him “cereal” (making fun of Syrians) and tease Fadi about his accent. He wants to learn about his Syrian culture, his Muslim religion, and still be a proud American.
Fun things about this book: Kareem really likes football, so many of the poems start with an NFL Fact. I learned a lot because I really don’t know much about football. I also liked that his favorite team is the Chicago Bears. I grew up in northern Illinois, so my go-to team was always the Bears. Even though most of his talk about the Bears is about them losing, it was still cool to hear about them in a book!
Four out of Five Magical Coffee Cups
Literary Coffee 