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Summary
Summary
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...
Author Notes
Randa Abdel-Fattah was born on July 6 1979 in Sydney Australia. She is an Australian Muslim writer of Palestinian and Egyptian decent. Her first novel Does My Head Look Big in This? was published in 2005.
Abdel-Fattah studied a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Law at the University of Melbourne. During this time, she was the Media Liaison Officer at the Islamic Council of Victoria, a role that afforded her the opportunity to write for newspapers and engage with media institutions about their representation of Muslims and Islam. Abdel-Fattah was a passionate human rights advocate and stood in the 1998 federal election as a member of the Unity Party. Her book titles include: Ten Things I Hate about Me, Where the Streets Had a Name, Noah's Law and The Friendship Matchmaker. In 2015 her title Does My Head Look Big in This? will be adapted into a film.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Wanting to be part of the in-crowd, Jamie (a.k.a. Jamilah) hides her Lebanese Muslim heritage behind bleached-blond hair and blue contacts. When her Arabic-music band is invited to play at a school dance, she fears her secret will come out. Themes of identity and self-image will resonate with teen readers, though the delivery is, at times, heavy-handed. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
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
School Library Journal Review
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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A 16-year-old Australian-Muslim-Lebanese teen wonders who she really is as she straddles two cultural realities. Since her mother died, Jamilah's overly protective Lebanese father imposes strict curbs on her social life while her hijab-wearing older sister is totally absorbed in political causes and her brother enjoys the freedom she's denied. Jamilah attends madrasa where she studies Arabic and plays the darabuka drums in a student band, but she leads a double life. Desperate to fit in at her high school, where she's known as Jamie, Jamilah dyes her hair blond, wears blue contact lenses, avoids getting close to anyone and is determined no one discover her true heritage. Longing to be respected for who she is, Jamilah knows "it takes guts to command that respect and deal with people's judgments." She recounts her travails in a chatty first-person, present-tense narration that's punctuated by transcripts of her e-mail conversations with a boy she knows only as John and whose friendship helps her find her way. Written with insight, humor and sensitivity, Abdel-Fattah introduces a winning Muslim-Australian heroine who discovers that "honesty is liberating." (Fiction. 12-16) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
