Drawing Deena

Khan, Hena. Drawing Deena.

February 6, 2024 by Salaam Reads / Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

ARC provided by Young Adult Books Central

Deena lives in Falls Church, Virginia with her younger brother Musa and her parents. Her father was an engineer in Pakistan, but wasn't able to find a similar job in the US, so the family struggles with money a bit. Her mother has a boutique in the basement and imports dresses from Pakistan, that she sells mainly to family friends, so the income is not huge. Deena loves to draw, and her latest project for school is a portrait of her cousin, Parisa. Parisa is older and heavily invested in social media, so she suggests that Deena create a social media account for the boutique, and perhaps a web site. Deena even creates a logo and decides to post photos of the outfits with Parisa modeling, in the style of Desi fashion magazines. Her mother is a little apprehensive about this, but agrees. Deena wants her mother's business to succeed, and to be the one who helps it do that. One reason behind this desire is that she has recently cracked a back molar and had to be fitted with an expensive night guard to stop her from grinding her teeth at night. The logo goes well, and Parisa wants to post one of Deena's drawings on her own account. This causes some problems with Deena's friend, Lucia, because the two of them promised that they would both stay off social media until they were both allowed to get accounts, since they have both seen people who spend too much time online and ignore their friends. Their friend Nisha, who is more into sports than they are, thinks they are a bit overboard, but doesn't argue with them. When a local artist, Salma, comes in to buy an outfit for her opening at a gallery, Deena wants to go, and attending the exhibit makes her think that she might some day be able to do more with her drawing. Her parents continue to fight, and the money concerns seem to be behind this, and Deena starts to feel more and more anxious. She's nauseated every morning, and even throws up at school. The school nurse is very supportive, and mentions that Deena might like to talk to a counselor. She has an anxiety attack when her class goes to an immersive Van Gogh exhibit, and during a class video about money on a morning where she was already not feeling well, she has a very bad panic attack. The nurse calls her mother, and has a talk with both of them about how seeing the school counselor might help. It's free, so the mother agrees, but the father thinks that seeing a school counselor might reflect badly on her later in her career and doesn't want her to go. The thought of feeling better was so appealing, however, that she stands up to her father and asks to be allowed. By the end of the book, things have improved a little in many different areas of Deena's life. 

Like this author's Zara's Rules for Record Breaking Fun, Amina's Voice, and Zayd Saleem series, this book has lots of good, supportive family moments, even though there is also some tension. I particularly enjoyed Musa, and would love to see him have his own book about soccer! The two squabble a bit, but genuinely like each other. Deena's anxiety is similar to Amina's, and is certainly trending in middle grade books. The mother's boutique was fascinating, and I know that some of my students' mothers have similar enterprises where they sell clothing or jewelry from their home countries; one of my students with a Nigerian background would frequently wear some of the clothing to school. Everything about this story seems realistic and well researched; the treatment of anxiety of students at school is spot on, the fact that Deena is surprised she doesn't get a lot of followers right away is accurate, as is the slight uptick in the mother's business because of the increased exposure. The squabble between Parisa and Deena sounds very cousinly. I've read several books lately about Desi weddings, so all of the descriptions of outfits, food, and the social buzz around them correlates with the information in those books. Best of all, there are some helpful tips for dealing with anxiety as well as a happy ending. 

It's hard for me, as an older person, to not agree with Deena's father, who wants everything to be kept more private, although he did know enough to give her mints to take to school to help with her nausea. I definitely understood when Deena mentioned that she just needed to power through, but younger people don't have the acquired skills or practice with this that adults have. There are certainly a lot of books about children dealing with anxiety, including Dee's Haven Jacob's Saves the Planet, Sumner's Summer of June, Machias' Flight + Fight, Dilloway's Five Things ABout Ava Andrews, Downing's Controlled Burn, Stroman's The Spin, Baron's The Gray,  Gerber's Taking Up Space, Leavitt's North of Supernova, and LaRocca's Mirror to Mirror, and the topic even shows up in frequently in graphic  novels like Lerner's A Work in Progress, Scrivan's Nat Enough, and Libenson's Emmie and Friends.