Review: Kareem Between

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, but Kareem is to worried about what others will think of him. His integrity is really being tested and Kareem must find the courage to fight for what is right and what is truly important to him.

This book does a great job at mashing together football, politics, middle school insecurities, and integrity in a way that is relatable for readers. This novel in verse is a compelling story that describes how hard it can be to understand the world around us and how important it is to stand up for what you believe in.

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