Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Language:  A few scattered profane words.  There is some verbal heckling of high school students using mild bigoted terms.

Sexual Content:  One chaste kiss.

Adult Themes:  Arguing between teens and their parents, past death of a parent.

Synopsis

Jamie is a blond, blue-eyed Australian high school student who suddenly has the most popular boy in school paying attention to her.  She winces inside when he makes rude and racist remarks to some of the other kids, but does not say anything.  The girls she hangs out with at school think it’s cool that he’s going to ask her to the prom.  But her friends don’t know who Jamie really is either.  She doesn’t get close enough to anyone for them to find out the truth.  The only confidant she has is an anonymous internet friend named “John,” and she tells him about her real self—her real name of Jamila, her Lebanese-Muslim family, her family language of Arabic, her blue contacts and bleached hair, her ultra-strict father who will not even let her go to the movies at night or get a part-time job.  She loves going to madrasa (Arabic school) on Saturdays, and playing her darabuka (Arabic drum) in a band with her Lebanese-background friends, but she doesn’t want her friends from high school to cross with that world.  Her identity crisis comes to a head when the band is invited to play at her high school, and her internet pal turns out to be a friend she knows at school.

This was a really fun book with a good family of characters.  The racist characters were quite flat, but both the good and bad of family members are developed.  Jamila/Jamie really has a strong voice that shows lots of personality.  There is a cute, great guy in opposition to the racist one, and loyal friends, wise teachers, conflicted parents, and difficult siblings. I really liked them all.