Hello Everyone,
It has been a while since I have posted a book review. There have been things going on in my life as a middle schooler, but now I’m back with more reviews! This time I have picked a book from the ‘Battle of Books’ club list. In Battle of the Books, we discuss a list of 20 or so books.
A few hours ago, I finished this amazing book called It Ain’t So Awful Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas. Based in the late 1070s, it’s about an Iranian- American girl named Zomorod Yousefzadeh who moves back to California after living in her home country Iran. Her mom doesn’t speak English, and her father does but with a thick accent. She hates her Farsi name because it’s really difficult to pronounce. One day, a girl named Cindy comes to her house to introduce herself. Instead of Zomorod saying her name was Zomorod, she randomly gives herself a Brady Bunch name, Cindy. So Zomorod will be Cindy while I’m explaining this story. Real Cindy and Fake Cindy continue hanging out the entire summer. But when they go to school, Real Cindy drops her. Zomorod (Cindy) has trouble fitting in until she meets a Norwegian-American girl named Carolyn. They immediately become friends. Carolyn always says she wants to be a journalist and wants to go to college. Cindy doesn’t have high expectations for herself. They become friends with two other girls, Howie and Rachel. They become a great friend group and do everything together especially hanging out camping, and girl scouts. One thing that affected Cindy the most was, there weren’t any Persians in her town in California. Cindy is happy with her friends, and she feels like she finally fits in. In the meantime, the political scenario was worsening due to the United States having a strained relationship with Iran. There were revolutions, protests, and other serious issues that made the life of Iranians in America challenging.
Cindy was slowly getting into a new life in America but unfortunately, her life gets extremely difficult when there are Anti-Iranian sentiments that hit too hard. This meant Cindy and her family had too much weight on their backs. They faced racism as people made mean comments against them. Things got worse when her father, Mr. Yousefzadeh lost his job and they had to hide their racial identity. This meant the Yousefzadeh family had to possibly leave the United States. But Cindy doesn’t want to leave. What will happen next? Read this book to find out.
When I first borrowed this book, many students in the BOB club said they found the book boring. But I didn’t care. When I started reading, I could not put this book down. I don’t do that often but this book had short chapters, language that was easy to understand, and had many funny moments. I could also identify myself with the character of Cindy (Zomorod).
If you want to read this book, you can order this book on Amazon or borrow it from your library.
Fun Facts about this book:
This book is a semi-autobiographical novel of the author Firoozeh Dumas(Iranian American author)
She currently lives in Munich, Germany.
You can learn more about the author on her website, The Falafel Kindness Project.
Her friend, Carolyn from middle school, always wanted to be a journalist. Now she’s a reporter for one of the most famous tv stations.
Her Friend, Howie, used to say no boy would dance with her at a dance because she was very tall. And today, her husband is 6ft 4 inches.
Zomorod’s name means Emerald in Persian.
Jimmy Carter was the president in the late 1970s when Cindy was in middle school.
Kathryn Koob was an American working in Iran in the late 1970s when she was held, hostage. The author talks about her in the book.
Here I share a quote from the book:
“My dad always says that kindness is our religion and if we treat everybody the way we would like to be treated, the world would be a better place.”