He’s also the first person to really see beyond Shirin’s outward appearance and someone who opens her eyes to see beyond the appearances of others, too. Ocean James, the high school golden boy and star of the basketball team, is assigned to be her biology partner. In reality, though, every rude (and sometimes violent) comment and double-take stare at her appearance do indeed effect her. She tries to shield herself against all of the open racism, ignorance, and bigotry by secretly using earbuds under her scarf and feigning a steely indifference to everyone around her. She is stared at, threatened, and mocked in her hijab. Where Navid is charismatic and the exotically handsome boy that many of the girls giggle over, Shirin is constantly told that she is the “other” and experiences the sexism present in both her religion and American society. Her parents are Iranian immigrants who move the family around frequently as they get better-paying jobs they want only the best for their children, Shirin and her older brother Navid. Shirin does look different: she is a Muslim-American teenager who wears a hijab. But, for anyone who looks different, high school can be more than a struggle it can be hell. Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi is an incredibly beautiful and relevant story about two teenagers falling in love set against post-9/11 America.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |