A review by ljrinaldi
Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi

5.0

Kareem is trying to fit in at school. He is a first generation Syrian-American, and he doesn’t want to stand out. He wants to be as American as everyone else. And he desperately loves football. He wants to play it, and thus he falls into a trap, because someone on the football team tries to bully him into doing his homework for him, in exchange for getting him on the team.
And that could just as well have been the major plot point.


But wait, the year this is happening is 2016. And what happened after the 45th president got into office. Yes, the Muslim ban.


So, Kareem is dealing with that, and having family stranded abroad, and everything else.


Told in blank verse, that somehow works. I usually don’t like to read books done in poetry, but this worked, and worked well. I, of course, always get frustrated with protagonists what do dumb things, because they think they will be liked more, but I’m glad that Kareem finally figured it out.


A quick read, and well written, with a lot of references to Football. And of course, the Muslim ban.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out on the 10th of September 2024.