Kareem Between

Safadi, Shifa Saltagi. Kareem Between
September 10, 2024 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Set in 2016, this novel in verse follows Kareem, a middle school student whose best friend Adam just moved away. Not only that, but he didn't make the football team. Kareem has an older sister, Jameelah, a younger brother, Sameer, and a father who is a cardiologist in their Chicago area town. Kareem is a huge fan of the Chicago Bears, and often watches the games as a way to decompress and not think about the variety of problems he and his family are facing. At school, Kareem is constantly belittled by Austin, who did make the team, and whose father is the school gym teacher and coach. Austin's comments and actions go far beyond the level of microaggressions, but Kareem hopes to take him at his word that he'll get Kareem on the team in the spring if Kareem does one of his papers for him. Of course, one paper turns into most of the longer assignments. There's a new family from Syria, and Kareem's mother wants him to befriend Fadi, who is Christian and has blond hair. Kareem is afraid to stick up for Fadi when Austin calls him "Cereal", not wanting to imperil his own social standing. The most serious problem is that his mother's father, Jido, is very ill. The family is trying to get him and the grandmother out of Syria, but this is a difficult process. Kareem takes great comfort in reading books, and mentions a lot of middle grade titles like Shovan's The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, Woodson's Locomotion, the Barbers' Go Long!, Senzai's Shooting Kabul, and classic titles like Wimpy Kid, Hatchet, The Bad Beginning, and Holes, relating his experiences to those of the characters he has enjoyed. When his mother goes to Syria to bring back her parents, the family feels very different without her steadying presence. Things with Austin escalate at school, and Kareen finds himself not supporting Fadi as he should. There are some bright spots, like meeting fellow football fan Jerry at the public library, but when Kareem gets in trouble at school, he compounds things in a horrible way. He hides his father's phone in the freezer, causing him to miss a call about his mother's flight. Because of this, the travel is delayed, and then runs into the problems of Executive Order 13769. This affects not only his family, but his religious education teacher whose fiance won't be able to come from Yemen. Things get even worse, and Kareem blames himself. When his mother goes missing, he tries to post on social media to try to find her, and eventually gets the attention of a local news reporter who suggests he contact his representative. There are protests in Chicago, and the travel ban is eventually appealed. Things aren't perfect in Kareem's world, but after a heart-to-heart with his father, he knows it is important to apologize for his actions that have hurt people, and to take responsibility for other aspects of his life as well.
Strengths: Putting a football on the cover of a middle grade novel means that it will automatically be picked up, so I appreciate that Safadi manages to weave Kareem's interest in the sport into a book that covers larger social issues as well. It's perfect to have Kareen be very concerned with issues like football, reading, and his social standing while his family faces what most people would consider more pressing problems; middle school is still middle school, and Kareem was born in the US. (The student of Syrian background whom I remember most was an 8th grade boy who would stop by the library first thing in the morning to ask how his hair looked. He trusted me to make sure he started his day without flyaways!) He has realistic struggles about this as well, not feeling that his Arabic is good enough, although the fact that the religious aspects of his life were mainly mentioned without any problems was refreshing to see. (He has a space to pray in the library, attends religious services with his family mostly without complaint, and doesn't really have any crises of faith.) Of course, the travel ban is shown in all its horror, and there are many examples, both in the story and in the author's afterword, about how this affected many families. There's enough football to keep young readers turning the pages as well.
Weaknesses: This is on trend with novels in verse that aren't particularly poetic; my readers don't pick these up quite as much, but we'll see if the inclusion of football outweighs the format. 

What I really think: This is a good addition to other books featuring the stories of other children with Syrian family backgrounds, and has a particularly strong message about the importance of activism. Pair this with other titles such as Dassu's Boy, Everywhere, Hitchcock and Senzai's Flying Over Water, Kullab's Escape from Syria, Rauf's The Boy at the Back of the Class, Roumani's Tagging Freedom, Saeed's Yara's Spring, Saleh's Wild Poppies, Senzai's Escaping Aleppo, and Warga's Other Words for Home.