A review by readtotheend
Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi

emotional hopeful informative fast-paced

4.0

I enjoyed this story about Kareem, a middle school Syrian American boy and his love of football. It had a lot of the middle school dilemmas about fitting in and peer pressure but also had a classmate who is a Syrian refugee and how he treats him at school when others are not as accepting of him.  This really brought me back to whenever a new Korean or Korean-American student came to our school and all eyes were on me just because I was also Korean American.  Sadly, this was written years ago during the first Trump administration and the major travel restrictions and challenges many people had and it's now happening again as people are being detained and afraid to travel in case they are not allowed to return to America, despite being permanent residents or citizens.  I know many students who might give this book a try because it has football but then would read about the experiences of Syrian American Kareem and gain a new perspective on experiences that don't look like their own and I really love when books can do that!