Jamie just wants to fit in. She doesn’t want to be seen as a stereotypical Muslim girl named Jamilah, so she does everything possible to hide that part of herself, even if it means keeping her friends at a distance. But when the cutest boy in school asks her out and her friends start to wonder about Jamie’s life outside of school, suddenly her secrets are threatened. Now she has to figure out how to be both Jamie and Jamilah before she loses it all... Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Jamilah Towfeek hides her Lebanese-Muslim background from the other kids at her Australian school "to avoid people assuming I fly planes into buildings as a hobby." She dyes her hair blonde, wears blue contacts and stands by when popular kids make racist remarks. Passing as "Jamie" is fraught with difficulties: she can't invite friends to her house, lies to cover up her widower dad's strict rules and reveals her true self only to an anonymous boy she meets online (her e-mail address is "Ten_Things_I_Hate_About_Me"). Tensions at home and school culminate when the band she plays in at her madrassa (Islamic school) is hired to perform at her 10th-grade formal. Abdel-Fattah (Does My Head Look Big in This?) follows a predictable pattern and uses familiar devices, such as the understanding teacher ("If [your friends] don't know the real you, then you've already lost them"). On the other hand, the author brings a welcome sense of humor to Jamilah's insights about her culture, and she is equally adept at more delicate scenes, for example, Jamilah's father recounting memories of Jamilah's mother. For all the defining details, Jamilah is a character teens will readily relate to. Ages 12-up. (Jan.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 7 Up-Lebanese-Australian Jamilah has two lives. At school she is blond-haired, blue-eyed (thanks to contact lenses) Jamie. At home she is Jamilah, a rebellious, but dutiful, daughter of a strict, widowed father. She keeps both her Muslim and Lebanese identities a secret at her high school because the most popular students make fun of anyone who is even vaguely "ethnic." The warm, nurturing nature of her home life (even with its limitations) is often contrasted to the cold environment in the homes of some of her friends. Not surprisingly, over the course of the book, her perspective changes. By the end, Jamilah decides to be herself in a very public and satisfying way. Fans of Abdel-Fattah's Does My Head Look Big in This? (Scholastic, 2007) will snap this title up, but the book will also appeal to teens who like stories about outsiders finding their place in the world.-Kristin Anderson, Columbus Metropolitan Library System, OH Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

In Abdel-Fattah's breakthrough first novel, Does My Head Look Big in This? (2007), an Australian Muslim teen defies prejudice and wears the hijab as a badge of her deeply held faith. This story looks at the issues from the opposite viewpoint: Jamilah, a 16-year-old Lebanese Muslim, dyes her hair blonde, calls herself Jamie at school, flirts with the cool popular guys, and hides her Muslim identity, even from her best friend. At home, Jamilah fights with her strict, widowed dad, who won't let her date or attend her high-school prom. The only person she opens up to is her e-mail friend, John. Who is he? The plot is contrived, with a sweet resolution, and the messages are spelled out as Jamilah realizes that she sees herself as a stereotype. But the teen's present-tense narrative is as hilarious as the narrator's in Abdel-Fattah's first book and is just as honest about the shocking prejudice against Muslims. Teens will love the free-flowing, funny dialogue, even as they recognize their own ways of covering up who they are.--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2008 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.