Ahmed Aziz is having an epic yearโepicallyย bad.
After his dad gets sick, the family moves from Hawaii to Minnesota for his dadโs treatment. Even though his dad grew up there, Ahmed canโt imagine a worse place to live. Heโs one of the only brown kids in his school. And as a proud slacker, Ahmed doesnโt want to deal with expectations from his new teachers.
Ahmed surprises himself by actually reading the assigned books for his English class:ย Holes,ย Bridge to Terabithia,ย andย From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Shockingly, he doesnโt hate them. Ahmed also starts learning about his uncle, who died before Ahmed was born.
Getting bits and pieces of his familyโs history might be the one upside of the move, even as his dadโs health hangs in the balance and the school bully refuses to leave him alone. Will Ahmed ever warm to Minnesota?
* A Chicago Public Library Kids Best Book of the Year * A BookPage Best Book of the Year * A Bank Street Best Book of the Year * Finalist for the Minnesota Book Award *ย
Nina Hamza is a writer and physician who lives in Minnesota. She struggles with math, calculating time zones, and parking. She is the author of Ahmed Aziz's Epic Year. Her favorite part of being a writer has been meeting kids who learned something from her books that she hadn't even intended. Visit her online at ninahamza.com.