Kareem Between By Shifa Saltagi Safadi New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2024. Fiction. 324 pages. Kareem loves football and as he gets ready to start seventh grade he dreams of someday becoming the first Syrian American NFL player. Seventh grade is not off to a great start for Kareem, after football tryouts don't go as he had planned, his best friend moves away, and his mom returns to Syria to help bring his sick grandfather to the US for treatment. So when Austin, the quarterback and coach's son, offers to talk to his dad and get Kareem on the football team in the spring, if he will cheat and do his homework for him, Kareem agrees. Kareem really wants to fit in at school and he is desperate to find a friend, but deep down he knows that doing Austin's homework isn't the right thing to do. And to make things harder, Kareem's mom asks him to be a friend to Fadi, a Syrian Christian refugee. He knows he should stand up for Fadi and help him adjust to the new school,...
No No Yes Yes by Leslie Patricelli is a wonderful board book that teaches toddlers proper behavior in specific situations. Each picture on the left shows a young child doing a "no no". The opposite page shows the child doing the "yes yes" version of the same act. The illustrations are simple and adorable. The baby's joyful expressions as he dumps food on his head, bops his little sister with a toy and yanks the cats tail will make even adults laugh out loud. There is only one set of pictures that didn't quite seem to fit, it involves scissors and a small child in diapers. I know the concept is good - teaching children to cut paper not their hair with scissors - but most children of that age will not be given scissors. If they somehow do get their little hands on some, they will mostly likely not cut a symmetrical snowflake as a "yes yes" behavior. This book is highly recommended by my 2-year old son, tears were shed when I had to bring it back to the library!
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