Kareem Between - Winner of the National Book Award 2024 (Young People's Literature)

__WINNER of the NATIONAL BOOK AWARD for Young People's Literature__

This heartfelt coming-of-age novel in verse tells the powerful story of a seventh-grade Syrian American boy and his struggles, big and small, as he navigates middle school.

"The exact type of book I would've loved, and needed, as a kid." Jasmine Warga, New York Times bestselling author of and Newbery Honor recipient for Other Words for Home

Seventh grade begins, and Kareem s already fumbled it.

His best friend moved away, he messed up his tryout for the football team, and because of his heritage, he was voluntold to show the new kid a Syrian refugee with a thick and embarrassing accent around school. Just when Kareem thinks his middle school life has imploded, the hotshot QB promises to get Kareem another tryout for the squad. There s a catch: to secure that chance, Kareem must do something he knows is wrong.

Then, like a surprise blitz, Kareem s mom returns to Syria to help her family but can t make it back home. If Kareem could throw a penalty flag on the fouls of his school and home life, it would be for unnecessary roughness.

Kareem is stuck between. Between countries. Between friends, between football, between parents and between right and wrong. It s up to him to step up, find his confidence, and navigate the beauty and hope found somewhere in the middle.

Leseprobe:

Fall 2016
Prepare to Play
The day
of the first
school game,
the
team
marches
down
the
halls
together,
loud with laughter,
matching jerseys
filling their faces with triumph,
applause around them
as they prepare to play
while
I
flatten
my
b
o
d
y
against the lockers,
moving
out of their way.
All I can think
is
if I was on the team,
I wouldn t
be
invisible.

Stadium
It seems like everyone in
Chesterton
comes to the first game,
the silver and red colors of
our Bulldogs
streaked on hundreds of faces,
wide smiles,
spirits high,
arms waving,
loud voices
in the stands
chanting the
school spirit song,
the barely fall breeze of September
flowing around us.
It takes
only one quarter
for everyone to realize
our team isn t going to win.
Austin s tosses fall shorter,
Coach s yells get louder,
and the
number of fans
in the stands
gets
smaller.
I feel like I m rewatching
last Sunday s game,
rewatching Jay Cutler
get sacked five times,
rewatching Bears fans
leaving
to
avoid seeing
a game
end
so low
it crushes us to the ground.

Late Fall 2016
Division
In the book
The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary
the fifth graders
don t want their school
shut down.
Because their class
would be
divi ded.
Because when
friendships
fr ,
classes are
lonely.
Months shuffle forward,
books my only
companions,
lessons and learning
all I do.
I hide in the library
to escape
the embarrassment
of where to sit at lunch,
but even my favorite books
don t distract me from
my despair.
I text Adam
about how awful
school is without him,
almost as awful as
th e Bears season has been.
Their loss in October
against the Packers
left
a bitter taste in my mouth
that hasn t disappeared
all of November.
I m thinking
of switching teams, bruh.
BOOM.
My book
falls
out from
my hand
onto the school hall floor.
Adam s moving on
from the Bears?
From our team?

Free Agent
Adam
and me
were more
than friends.
We were brothers,
since kindergarten.
Before
we learned our letters,
we learned
to toss a foam football.
Back and forth
and
forth
and
back.
Adam s the one who
first taught me the game,
about the Monsters of the Midway,
Da Bears.
We watched
replays,
studied Super Bowl XX
over and over,
and together,
we drew dreams
of being the next
Super Bowl stars,
of bringing the Bears
back to
sweet greatness.<