American heart / Laura Moriarty.

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  • Additional Information
    • Publication Information:
      First edition.
    • Abstract:
      Summary: Imagine a United States in which registries and detainment camps for Muslim Americans are a reality. This is the world of fifteen-year-old Sarah-Mary Williams of Hannibal, Missouri. Sarah-Mary, who has strong opinions on almost everything, isn't concerned with the internments, as she doesn't know any Muslims. She assumes that everything she reads and sees in the news is true, and that these plans are better for everyone's safety. Then she meets Sadaf, a fugitive escaping to Canada. Should she turn her in ... or help her?
    • Notes:
      Young Adult.
      9Y.
    • ISBN:
      9780062694102
      0062694103
    • Accession Number:
      2017934829
    • Accession Number:
      on1005091213
      1005091213
    • Accession Number:
      fay.564583

Reviews

Horn Book Guide Reviews 2018 Fall

In an America where Muslims live in internment camps, Sarah-Mary confronts her Islamophobia after she discovers a fugitive Muslim who asks for her help to flee to Canada. Because the Muslim character is never fully developed, the novel's anti-racist sentiment feels dubious. Though well-written and suspenseful, the book doesn't do enough to parse the difference between representing racism and ignorance and condoning it. Copyright 2018 Horn Book Guide Reviews.

PW Reviews 2017 November #1

In 16-year-old Sarah-Mary's near-future America, the U.S–Mexico border is closed and Muslims are being sent to internment camps. These aren't things Sarah-Mary thinks about much. She doesn't know any Muslims; she and her younger brother, Caleb, are stuck living with their strict aunt; and she hates her suffocating Baptist high school. Then Caleb insists that she help a Muslim woman get to safety in Canada, and her journey with "Chloe" begins. In her YA debut, Moriarty (The Chaperone) incorporates several familiar road trip themes as the two hitchhike north, but the real story is Sarah-Mary's awakening to her own prejudices and intolerance. Sarah-Mary is resourceful and good at thinking on her feet, constantly checking her moral compass against what she's been told; smart, exhausted Sadaf (aka Chloe), an engineer whose biggest mistake was loving the U.S. too much to leave, worries about herself, her family, and the dangerous situation she's putting Sarah-Mary in. A string of coincidences in the final chapters are a letdown, but Moriarty's novel remains an effective tale of dawning awareness and the risks and rewards of following one's conscience. Ages 13–up. Agent: Margaret Riley King, William Morris Endeavor. (Jan.)

Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly.