More to the Story
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
From the critically acclaimed author of Amina’s Voice comes a new story inspired by Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic, Little Women, featuring four sisters from a modern American Muslim family living in Georgia.
When Jameela Mirza is picked to be feature editor of her middle school newspaper, she’s one step closer to being an award-winning journalist like her late grandfather. The problem is her editor-in-chief keeps shooting down her article ideas. Jameela’s assigned to write about the new boy in school, who has a cool British accent but doesn’t share much, and wonders how she’ll make his story gripping enough to enter into a national media contest.
Jameela, along with her three sisters, is devastated when their father needs to take a job overseas, away from their cozy Georgia home for six months. Missing him makes Jameela determined to write an epic article—one to make her dad extra proud. But when her younger sister gets seriously ill, Jameela’s world turns upside down. And as her hunger for fame looks like it might cost her a blossoming friendship, Jameela questions what matters most, and whether she’s cut out to be a journalist at all…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This contemporary update of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women follows the Muslim, Pakistani-American Mizra family of Atlanta. Narrator Jameela, 13, is thrilled to be named features editor of her school newspaper and endeavors to write a spectacular article as a going-away gift for her father, whose job is sending him overseas for six months. Jam and her sisters Maryam, Bisma, and Aleeza are heartbroken to lose Baba for half a year, but the sting is lessened somewhat by the arrival of Ali, 14, the British-Pakistani nephew of Baba's best friend. Ali is spending the year in the U.S. after getting into trouble following his father's death, and he quickly endears himself to the Mizra girls. Jam decides to write her article about microaggressions and unwisely uses examples Ali told her in confidence, endangering their new friendship just as a crisis threatens her family. Khan (Amina's Voice) nimbly incorporates details of modern life and allusions to Alcott's classic including financial troubles and a health scare into a tale that is, fittingly, strongest in the moments when family dynamics are on display. Ages 8 12.)
