(2) YA Sixteen-year-old Samira feels restricted by the watchful eyes of her tight-knit Sudanese American community, especially those of her protective mother. The community has labeled her a "bad girl" because of a false rumor that a boy started years ago. Now, while trying to sneak out to a party with friends, Samira is caught by her mom and grounded. Forbidden from leaving the house, she turns to an online poetry forum to stay connected. She begins chatting with an older poet, Horus, with whom she quickly finds herself falling in love. She begins to question him, though, when he pretends her poem is his. Through vivid free-verse poetry, text messages, and emails, Elhillo (Home Is Not a Country, rev. 7/21) creates a realistic picture of a teenage girl trying to push against unfair perceptions. She also highlights the fears of parents who are trying to raise children in a foreign country. In addition, the book offers a glimpse into the world of poetry and how young artists may be manipulated by older ones. Readers will appreciate the believable portrayal of a teen who is dealing with complex issues of family, friendship, and romantic love.

Reviewer: Nicholl Denice Montgomery | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(2) YA Elhillo's strikingly original novel in searingly honest, staccato verse, nearly all in lowercase, showcases the difficult realities of working-class immigrant families. Nima is a sensitive Muslim teenager, daughter of an immigrant mother, whose life is marked by the absence of a father she never knew, of friends (except one), and of belonging and feeling at home. Haunted by "sepia"-tinted memories "of a country i've never seen / outside a photograph," bullied at school, and excluded by her Arabic-speaking peers, she grapples with a series of what-ifs. A "nostalgia monster" hungry for old photographs and retro Arabic music and films, Nima yearns for a different life, one lived in her imagination as her "ghost self," Yasmeen. When her only friend is hospitalized after a hate crime, she goes into a tailspin. In a magical realism sequence, she encounters corporeal Yasmeen and travels through space and time to see her parents together, uncovering truths that help recalibrate her life. While Elhillo's novel draws on her Sudanese heritage, she leaves the family's country of origin unnamed. Her richly imagined settings bring into sharp focus the nuances of a fractured identity in many diasporic communities. An immersive experience of the intersectionality of gender, class, race, religion, and identity.

Reviewer: Sadaf Siddique | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2021