Yusuf Azeem Is Not a Hero: A Timely Middle Grade Story about Robotics, Friendship, and Prejudice for Children (Ages 8-12)

Good book

This book was so wonderful to read and showed a town ultimately doing the right thing after members of the community were wrong. It is the kind of book that should be showcased and lets love triumph.

Came on time and good packaging

This book was great for my middle school students. Very current and relatable to middle school aged kids.

Good book for an grade school reader.

My 5th grader found it interesting, relatable and informative.

Yusuf Azeem is not a hero, except when he is. This book opens with Yusuf starting middle school as a sixth grader. He enjoyed elementary school and he's looking forward to middle school, especially because he can now participate in the TRC (Texas Robotics Competition) that he's been practicing for since third grade. On his first day of school, Yusuf and his friend Danial pass under a banner that has been hung in the hallway which says "Never Forget - Twenty Years" - but they aren't really concerned about it. Yusuf knows that middle school is going to be awesome - right up until he opens his locker for the first time and sees a note that says "You suck." At first, Yusuf shrugs it off, thinking the note couldn't possibly be for him because it's the first day and how could anybody even know which locker is his? Unfortunately, that begins a series of events that make clear that there are individuals in the small town of Frey who think that all Muslims should just "go home" because "their kind don't belong here." At first, Yusuf tries to just keep his head down and ignore the bullying, but he quickly finds that his faith - which teaches to help those who need it and stop those who are doing wrong - won't let him ignore it, and he begins to stand up to the bullying - though he doesn't always win. Yusuf's story is interspersed with entries from his uncle's journal entries during the same time frame in 2001. The similarities of the struggles both boys faced show us that, even though it may be 20 years later, there are many Americans who still view all Muslims as the enemy, with suspicion, and as dangerous. This is illustrated extremely well when Yusuf takes his new Micro:bit to school with him.

Constant subpar examples, stereotypes and exaggerations to make some points, mixed with foreign language all over the book make it a tiring read.

So I purchased this book for a proposed Muslim Children's Library. I was excited to increase our range for chapter books as Muslim lit for this age range is limited. I was so extremely disappointed. The whole book screams of inferiority complex from beginning to end. For starters, the only fully religiously practicing aunty (Sameena Aunty) is the most condescending, arrogant, inconsiderate character. I'd argue she is worse than the obvious antagonist in the story. Other practicing characters are portrayed as rigid and perhaps backward. So much emphasis is put on all the religious and paganistic rituals of other religions and cultures; which normally doesn't bother me except that the Muslim children are continuously engaged in them throughout the story. Muslim children unabashedly eating non-halal food etc. This is definitely not a book for a young, impressionable Muslim audience. The only value in the book is perhaps for those that lived through 9/11 as a non-Muslim and was not aware of how the discourses of the time really affected Muslim families and children. Nothing more than that. The book will not be making it into our library catalogue.

Amazing book.. My son loved it.. Worth buying