Books: My window to the world

I love reading books, but honestly, I like watching TV more. If you are looking for good books to read, you might like this blog about my favorite book list.
I will start with a quote by my favorite author JK Rowling:

“I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.”

I completely agree with that because reading books during this pandemic has changed my perspective about challenges in life. Today I can relate myself to the characters in the book I have read so far.

I had read somewhere that, “Books let you travel without moving your feet.” I have traveled with the characters to different parts of the world. I have understood the challenges of the characters from various parts of the world. From South Africa, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Honduras to United States. The characters in the books were different, but the pain of discrimination, racism, separation and illness was the same. I learnt what being a refugee and immigrant meant. I learnt a lot about cultural diversity, illness, family, and friendship.

The first book I read was “Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood” about Trevor Noah. Credit to Jeneeya Aunty for giving me the book. This book inspired me to read and learn more. I had finished the book within a week. I got to learn about apartheid. You might be thinking, what is apartheid?

Apartheid was a political and social system in South Africa. Under the system, the people of South Africa were divided by their race. The different races were forced to live separately from each other. There were laws in place to ensure that segregation was abided by. Trevor Noah was mixed. His mother is black and had married a white person from Switzerland, which was a crime in those days. His father had to leave them and go back to his country. His mother later married another man named Abel and they had 2 sons named Andrew and Isaac. Abel did drugs and would beat her. One day, he brought a gun and shot her in the tailbone and the back of her head. Luckily, she survived. Noah was working as a standup comedian by then and was able to pay for the treatment. She was a very religious woman. When she was asked “Did Jesus pay for your hospital bills,” she said “Jesus did not pay for my bill. But Jesus gave me a son who paid my bill”. I really liked this quote from his Mom. Trevor Noah is a famous stand-up comedian and makes everyone’s day. This book is about the difficult journey of Trevor Noah on facing discrimination, racism, and violence. I was very curious to see what would happen at the end. A few parts of the book made me uncomfortable specially when there was violence but overall, it was inspirational.

Ages 9+
Another book I read was called One Crazy Summer. One Crazy Summer is a historical fiction novel by American author Rita Williams-Garcia, published in 2010. The novel is about Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern, three sisters, visiting their mother who had abandoned them and had moved to California many years ago. The three sisters travel to Oakland, California, from New York, during the summer of 1968. The sisters go to a day camp for black kids and for the first time, they experienced discrimination based on their color. During this time, the daughters get to learn about their mother’s dark past and were able to forgive her at the end. If I were one of the girls, I would have done the same after understanding her circumstances that made the mother abandon them. Sometimes we make an opinion about others without understanding. But this summer they learned about their mother and built a relationship.

Ages 9+
My next favorite book is “Other Words for Home” written by Jasmine Warga. The book won a 2020 Newbery Honor. The story is about a family of Syrian refugees. Jude moves to Ohio with her American cousin and American aunt and her Arab uncle and mom. The book talks about Jude’s struggle to fit into American life and finding a home away from home. This is my favorite book because it shows a lot of detail about her life in school, where she tries out for her very first play. It is difficult for Jude as she misses her home in Syria and not being next to her brother Isa and her father. I highly recommend reading this book.

Age: 9 and up
More to the Story and Amina’s Voice
Both stories are by Hena Khan and explore cultural diversity, family, and friendship. Both the book characters are Pakistani Americans and all girls of 10 to 12 of age will be able to identify themselves with the characters.
In More to the Story, Jameela is a seventh-grade girl, who has a loving family and a good head on her shoulders. But that doesn’t mean life is simple. Her father goes to The Middle East for a couple of months and leaves the rest of them alone. A boy her age, and family friend, moves to their town from Britain with troubles of her own. While she’s becoming good friends with him, her ambitions to become a great reporter for the school paper have her chasing him for an exclusive. And that might not go as planned. Add troubles with the head of the newspaper, regular life with her siblings (which isn’t always smooth when her sister gets lymphoma) and she’s in for quite the time of change in her life.

Age 11+
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee:
This is another story on racism and injustice. An innocent person is punished for a crime that he has not done just because of racism. The mockingbird stands for innocent or harmless characters in the story. This book also teaches the lesson of not judging others. There is a movie based on this book.
Scout Finch is a girl who lives in Alabama with her brother, Jem, and their father named Atticus who is a lawyer.
In their neighborhood there is a family that is not social and never leaves home. The neighbors spread bad rumors about the family. Their son they called ‘Boo Radley’ was considered weird and dangerous. But by the end of the story, children realize they were wrong in judging Boo (Arthur) Radley when he saves the kid’s life. Secondly, Atticus stands up for a black man who is wrongly accused of harming a white lady named Mayella. But his client gets punished for something that he had not done just because of racism. I learnt lessons like life is not always fair and we should not judge people based on rumors.

Age 9 and above
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanna Lai
Inside Out and Back Again is a story about a young girl named Kim Hà and her family. She’s with her mother and three brothers. The Vietnam War forces them to move to the United States since their home was no longer safe. This book highlights the challenges of refugees and their struggle to start a new life. In this book the girl gets bullied at school, but she learns to stand for herself at the end.

Age 11 and above
Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott
The month of May is cystic fibrosis month. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a chronic lung disease. This is a story of two people with CF named Stella and Will. They are in the hospital and cannot touch each other and have to stay five feet apart. It is a story of their relationship and suffering because of CF. I needed some help from my parents to understand about the characters and issues related to the illness, but I really enjoyed and learnt a lot from this book. I was little sad to see what they went through. There is a movie based on this book. I recommend this book for kids 11 and older because it would be inappropriate and confusing due to lot of medical terms used throughout the book.

Ages 12+
Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario

“Enrique’s journey” is based on a true story of a man named Enrique from Honduras. Enrique’s mother left her family to go to America to work. He tries to enter America through the Mexico border to find his mother. He had a hard life and lived in a different path by doing drugs but was determined to find his mother. This is a story about refugees and going to a different country. In this story Enrique learns how evil the world can be and life is unfair when he has to cross the border to go to America and how he gets caught and has to regret his decision to do what he did. I learned about the challenging life in Central America where people are living under poverty and their biggest dream is to go to America. There were some parts in the book about violence and discussion about drugs, that made me feel uncomfortable. Overall it is a good book to learn about life of illegal immigrants.

Ages: 9 and above
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park.
This story is based on a true story from Sudan during the war. It is about two children. A boy named Salva who is separated from his family and is forced to move from one country to another as a refugee. Another character, Nya, is a 11 years old girl who has to walk eight hours a day to get water for her family and cannot go to school because of this responsibility.
I learned that water is the purest and most important thing on earth. Many countries have a scarcity of water and people face different challenges related to it. Salva Dut moves to America after many years of going from one refugee camp to another camp. To this day Salva works with organization called “Water for South Sudan” to provide water pumps in Sudan. At the end of the book, Salva goes to Sudan where he meets Nya. She thanks him for the water pumps in her village and for supporting girls’ education. I enjoyed reading this book.

Ages: 9 and above
Pashmina:
I recently finished a graphic novel called Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani. It is about a girl named Priyanka who wants to go to India. Her mom used to live before moving to the USA. Her mother refuses to talk about India and her past life. Her mom had abandoned everything and had moved to the USA. Priyanka wonders who her dad is. One day a suitcase falls off her closet. It was a suitcase from India. She found a pashmina that she puts on. It magically takes her to India where she meets an elephant and a peacock. Finally, she goes to India and learns about her mother’s past and truth about her dad.
At the end Priyanka finds her root. It is important to value your culture and roots. If you don’t know where you are coming from, you will not know where you are going.


Ages: 9 and above
Shooting Kabul by N.H Senzai
If you are a kid under eight and want to read this book, you can with your parents. This is about a 11-year-old boy Fadi from Afghanistan who moves to California as a refugee and has a six-year-old sister named Mariam who is accidently left behind in Afghanistan. The story is set during a time when Muslims in the Bay Area was getting bullied after the Taliban’s attack of Twin Towers in NY (9/11 attack). He wants to win a photo contest so he could win a ticket to a trip to India. Fadi sees his chance to return to Afghanistan and find his sister. I was curious to find out if he found his sister at the end. This is another story of a refugee who faces racism after 9/11, when Muslims were called terrorists and were severely bullied and even injured. This is a story of hope and perseverance.

Moving into a new country as immigrants or refugees is not easy. It means you leave your familiar environment and try to learn new language and culture to start a new life.

I cannot end this topic on my favorite books without mentioning my favorite book and movie series Harry Potter! Spoiler alert! But I will talk about it in my next blog.

Before I end this blog, I want to discuss something very important. Parents and kids please do not scroll down or say this is boring and random. I want to share my thoughts about judging others or saying something that could be hurtful. I am sure you have experienced or read something that has made you uncomfortable. Labeling people is just wrong. Really wrong. Even though they can’t hear you. Imagine someone calling you names without your knowledge.
You might say” It’s just a joke,” or “Don’t take it seriously. “They are not here”, but in my opinion, it is inappropriate.

Many people are bullied in some way or the other every day. I recently heard on TV that during this COVID 19 pandemic, many Asians (especially of Chinese origin) are getting bullied and discriminated.They are blamed for covid 19 pandemic because the covid cases were first seen in Wuhan, China.

We may come from different places, speak different tongues, and have different cultural values but we all are similar from inside. We feel the same emotions: happiness, pain or sadness. So, let’s stop this negativity of discrimination today.

After reading a variety of books during this pandemic I have learnt a lot about people from different parts of the world and I have become more empathetic.

Please read some of the books I have discussed here. I am sure you will like them.

Thank you for reading my thoughts. I will be writing another blog soon.!