New Visions Award Winner, Lee & Low Books
When djinn start to show up in twins Leila and Bianca's small Virginia hometown, the only way they and their
families will survive will be if the twins can get past their differences and start to act like sisters again.
Twins Bianca and Leila could not be more different from each other. Being both Argentinian and Iranian in a
small town has always been hard, but with Leila shunning her heritage and Bianca embracing it, the two walk
very different paths. They run in different circles of friends, and barely talk anymore. Leila's a homebody who
loves to craft and plans on marrying her high school sweetheart. Bianca's more anti-establishment and plans
to get out of Dodge as soon as humanly possible.
But on their eighteenth birthday, the neighbor's barn is burned down--and it doesn't seem to have been caused
by anything normal like an electrical or fuel source. When Leila encounters a mysterious monster arising from
the fire, suddenly she gains strange powers--and can no longer touch iron or even eat foods with high iron
content.
What are these creatures and where are they coming from? What do they want with Leila--or other people in
town, for that matter? Can the twins learn to rely on each other--and their cultures--to banish them? It'll take
a sisterly reconciliation for the girls to find out and to save their hometown in this New Visions Award-winning
fantasy adventure.
Finding her voice takes on a whole new meaning when fourteen-year-old Azar Rossi sets out to win her local Battle of the Bands contest in this heartfelt and hilarious contemporary YA.
Fourteen-year-old Azar Rossi's first year of high school has mostly been silent, and intentionally so. After a bad case of colic as a baby, Azar's vocal folds are shredded-full of nodules that give her a rasp the envy of a chain-smoking bullfrog. Her classmates might just think she's quiet, but Azar is saving her voice for when it really counts and talking to her classmates is not medically advisable or even high on her list.
When she hears about a local Battle of the Bands contest, it's something she can't resist. Azar loves music, loves songwriting, but with her vocal folds the way they are, there's no way she can sing her songs on stage.
Then she hears lacrosse hottie, Ebenezer Lloyd Hollins the Fifth, aka Eben, singing from the locker room. She's transfixed. He's just the person she needs. His voice + her lyrics = Battle of the Bands magic. But getting a band together means Azar has a lot of talking to do and new friends to make. For the chance to stand on stage with Eben it might all just be worth it.
Fourteen-year-old Iranian-American Parvin Mohammadi sets out to win the ultimate date to homecoming in this heartfelt and outright hilarious debut.
Parvin Mohammadi has just been dumped--only days after receiving official girlfriend status. Not only is she heartbroken, she's humiliated. Enter high school heartthrob Matty Fumero, who just might be the smoking-hot cure to all her boy problems. If Parvin can get Matty to ask her to Homecoming, she's positive it will prove to herself and her ex that she's girlfriend material after all. There's just one problem: Matty is definitely too cool for bassoon-playing, frizzy-haired, Cheeto-eating Parvin. Since being herself hasn't worked for her in the past (see aforementioned dumping), she decides to start acting like the women in her favorite rom-coms. Those women aren't loud, they certainly don't cackle when they laugh, and they smile much more than they talk.
But Parvin discovers that being a rom-com dream girl is much harder than it looks. Also hard? The parent-mandated Farsi lessons. A confusing friendship with a boy who's definitely not supposed to like her. And hardest of all, the ramifications of the Muslim ban on her family in Iran. Suddenly, being herself has never been more important.
Olivia Abtahi's debut is as hilarious as it is heartfelt--a delightful tale where, amid the turmoil of high school friendships and crushes, being yourself is always the perfect way to be.
