I will be rereading this book! I think it is a perfect beginning of the year reading to kick off a new school year! I appreciate the diverse characters!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of Ahmed Aziz's Epic Year by Nina Hamza. Ahmed Aziz's father has a serious illness that requires the family move from Hawaii to Minnesota. This is the beginning of Ahmed's epically bad year as he is forced to deal with being the only brown kid in school, an extremely sick father, a neighbor who is a bully, and a teacher who expects them to READ ( a past time he abhors).

As Ahmed navigates through his new surroundings and learns about his late uncle (who died when he was Ahmed's age and lived in the same Minnesota town), he discovers truths about himself that he never would have guessed--like that he can actually like reading a book and that revenge doesn't have to be taken to be enjoyed.

I highly enjoyed Ahmed Aziz's Epic Year and would recommend it to students grades 3-7.

I thought this was a great book!! It definitely had an arc of the character Ahmed, and kids can learn a lot from his thought process. I think Ahmed was written so well — everyone in the book felt like a real person. The author really captured a kid’s voice and questioning of the world with Ahmed, and it makes the book very relatable for middle grade readers. The author deals with big themes including bullying, immigration, moving, and having sick parents, but there are also themes of family, unity, and friendship. The hard themes were written about really well and overall there are a lot of lessons to be learned from this great book. Talking about other famous books like Bridge to Terabithia, and Holes also made for a very interesting and fun read for older readers who have read those books before. Working the classics into a story that is so needed in the present creates a beautiful story any middle schooler will enjoy.

I was not ready for this book to end. I could go on reading about Ahmed's new life in Minnesota with his family.

This book deals with a lot of issues that are very typical of middle school students. Physical bullying, cyberbullying, family illness, death, and starting over are a part of life everyone can identify with. Ahmed deals with all of these things PLUS the fact that he is a new kid in a school full of people that don't quite look like him and in a family that keeps bringing up how much he is like his dead uncle.

You will fall in love with this family though, and cheer him on as Ahmed finds balance, finds his voice and begins to better understand who he is in this new world he lives in.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy. Even adults who enjoy lit study will really enjoy this book. The themes of bullying, bravery, death, being yourself, and family really shine through. Any teacher who already has students reading and analyzing Holes, Bridge to Terabithia, and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler can add this to the curriculum. This book being funny and having a male protagonist will really help engage a lot of male students. I appreciate that this book is clean. It features a Muslim Indian family and the difference in culture and religion is subtly mentioned throughout. I am already recommending this book to fellow teachers and librarians. Thank you for a happy ending!

Thanks to NetGalley for the early copy! I loved this book and Ahmed. I appreciate that more diverse middle grade books are starting to be published to represent more of the students we are seeing in school which allows them to see book characters like them. I also think it's important for our other students to see diverse characters and other peoples cultures as well!
Ahmed and his family move from warm and sunny Hawaii to cold and snowy Minnesota, so his dad can start receiving treatment for an illness he has. This town in Minnesota also happens to be the town his dad grew up in and his uncle died in at a young age. This is a story about finding your way and being true to yourself.

A fresh take on the standard new kid trope, Ahmed Aziz’s Epic Year is a fun and relatable story for young readers. Hamza tackles universal themes of family, bullying, and learning about yourself in an accessible and engaging way.

Ahmed's life is turned upside down when his family moves from Hawaii to Minnesota, where his father grew up, in order for his father to receive life saving medical care. So now Ahmed is the new kid who spends his year struggling with his father's illness, the bully next door, and figuring out who he is, outside of the kid who looks like his dead uncle. Ahmed has help getting through the year from his friends and three books that he has to read for his Advanced English class. Through the journey he discovers details about an uncle he never knew, and how to have courage in all sorts of situations.
I loved this book. The use of the three other books to teach valuable lessons to Ahmed and the reader’s is beautiful. The book contains so many little nuggets of wisdom.
Ahmed’s story is so familiar to middle grade readers. Each of them has had to spend some time figuring out who they are and how they fit in to the world around them. And most of them have had to or will deal with a bully sometime in their young life. Ahmed is a great role model in how he deals with most of the bullying situations. Sometimes I read books or watch movies where the bullying seems over the top or unrealistic, but this book portrayed it so realistically.
The book also has many laugh out loud moments, but some of those might be because I live in Minnesota now and totally connected to his experiences here.
This will be book I add to my recommended reading list and will have my 9-year-old daughter read sometime.

4 1/2 Stars.
This book is a coming of age story and about family, friendships, and discovering who you are and who you want to be. Ahmed has a lot that he is dealing with. He is forced to move to a new town and attend a new middle school where he is the only brown skinned kid in the school. He is dealing with being different, worrying about his dad’s health, being bullied, and trying his best to fit in.

This book is very well written. The family dynamics are realistic and ring true. This author does an amazing job getting the reader to feel the characters’ emotions. In the beginning of the book, Ahmed’s disappointment, anger and nervousness were palpable. As Ahmed learned to deal and adjust to his new situation, the weight I felt as the reader lifted.

This is a book about books, but there are spoilers given on the three class books as the students discuss how these stories relate to their lives. I love the important role books played in Ahmed’s life.

I like that the author threw in great vocabulary words in a very interesting way.

The story was very funny, sometimes sarcastically so, which helped with the seriousness of some of the topics covered. Ahmed often gave us little clever insights, most that he got from reading his books.

It is a fabulous book. I think this is an important book for kids in middle school to read. It has an Indian Muslim main character, which is rare, and deals with the topic of bullying, which many kids have to face. On top of that, it is funny and just really well written. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you Net Galley and HarperCollins Children’s Books- Quill Tree Books for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.
#NetGalley #AhmedAziz’sEpicYear

LOVED this #ownvoices book about Ahmed's epic year as he deals with bullies, makes new friends, and learns more about his family with a little help from some classic kid lit: Holes, Bridge to Terabithia, and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Great to see a male protagonist taking the lead in this story! This book is perfect as a read aloud and for book clubs.

Thank you HarperCollins and NetGalley for the e-arc.

There is such a shortage of male Muslim protagonist middle grades books that I have been waiting quite impatiently to get my hands on this one, and alhumdulillah, it didn't disappoint.  I'm not sure if it qualifies as OWN voice, being it has a female author, but the authenticity in the little details would suggest that it should.  The 320 page book is meant for ages 8-12, but the weight of Aziz's father's illness, the plot pivoting around three classic books, and the clever reflections of Ahmed along with his quick wit and thoughtful choices might make the book's sweet spot be 5th to 7th grade readers; as well as us moms who are suckers for elementary must reads, teachers who are heroes, and kids realizing their potential.  The book has a bully, but is clean and wonderful, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

SYNOPSIS:

Twelve-year-old Ahmed is leaving the only home he has known in Hawaii to move to Minnesota.  His dad has Cirrhosis, a result from a rare genotype of hepatitis C, and Minnesota is one of the top options for treatment.  The family is nervous to move in general, but more so to move to Minnesota.  It is where Ahmed's dad Bilal grew up, and where his dad's younger brother passed away at age 12. Ahmed's younger sister, Sara, is perhaps the only one excited for the new adventure.  

The family arrives and is greeted by Bilal's old friends, and when school starts he realizes one of his dad's best friends, is his English teacher, and somewhat of a legend at the school in getting kids to try and beat her at an end of the year quiz show like competition.  The school is also where Bilal and his brother Muhammed went to school and a picture of Muhammed hangs right above Ahmed's locker.  The biggest stress at school is Jack. Jack who lives a few houses over, Jack who rides the same bus, Jack who is in Ahmed's English group, and Jack who has a lot of followers at school.  Jack is a bully.  One who makes Ahmed's life miserable at every turn, not just socially, but even the police.

Ahmed is a laid back kid that doesn't like to read, but loves words, who wants to blend in yet is the only brown kid in a sea of white, who enjoys attending  Jummah salat, but ultimately hates going because of the shoe chaos afterwards.  Ahmed has no intention to read the books assigned in class, but some how the three classic books assigned do get read, and  Holes, Bridge to Terabithia, and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler tie together and weave in and out of Ahmed's epic year.

I don't want to spoil much, but Ahmed's dad is in the hospital a lot, there is a lot of plotting to survive being bullied, as well as getting revenge on the bully in Ahmed's own way without involving parents.  Ahmed slowly grows to love Minnesota, his small circle of friends, and his school while learning about his uncle and the kind of person he wants to be as he grows up.

WHY I LIKE IT:

Ahmed is Muslim and while his mom prays five times a day and his dad is an occasional prayer it doesn't specify how often Ahmed prays or how he feels about religion, other than going for Jummah.  At first Ahmed thinks he is being bullied by Jack because he is brown, his mom is an immigrant from India, his father the son of immigrants from India, but learns that Jack picks on anyone new.  I like that for as much as Ahmed hates stereotypes and assumptions, he acknowledges that he makes them too.  I like that Ahmed doesn't like to read, but is smart, and eventually comes around to reading.  He is tech smart and very mature in how he views the world and himself in it, cares for his sister and parents, handles things on his own, and builds others up.  Ahmed is a good kid, not in that he doesn't make errors or is a teacher's pet, but in that he has a really good heart and a good head, and I think would make anyone better for knowing him.  I love that the book is smart too.  If you have read the three books mentioned you will love the discussions and questions about the books, if you haven't read them, you will be tempted to after you finish this book.  I wish there was a tad more religion, there is a sprinkling of culture, primarily the mom's tragic cooking, but a bit more religion in a book that has illness and death would seem natural to me.  The storytelling is superb, I was so curious where the father's parents were, but alas it did answer that, I would have liked it sooner, but I was glad it made it in none-the-less.  I would have liked a bit more from the parents about why they wanted Ahmed at his dad's old school, or how they were comfortable constantly leaving the two kids home alone at night, but Ahmed like I said is pretty mature.  I particularly love the brother sister relationship.  Ahmed is a good older brother and it reminded me in some ways of my older brother, which made my heart warm, good siblings are a blessing.

There are multiple climaxes, but while I expected the dad's health to be a big one and Jack getting what was due to be a close second along with the outcome of the literary contest, I was not prepared for the level of Jack's torture to climb to, and was pleasantly surprised by the unresolved thread of Jack and Ahmed's future relationship.  Things in life don't magically resolve and I love when middle grade novels keep that in mind.  

FLAGS:

None

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

I would absolutely do this in a heartbeat for a middle school book club selection.  Even if the book is more middle grades, I think the students will enjoy it and be surprised by the emotional investment the dad character extracts.  I think they will also benefit from the literary references, relatable characters, and the overall great storytelling.

This book was received as an ARC from HarperCollins Children's Books - Quill Tree Books in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I could not help but love this book. We have a very strong Muslim community in our library and they will appreciate a book like this for their children. Ahmed goes through a lot of struggles from dealing with his dad's illness and being the only brown kid in his school but handles them like a champ. I admire the direction Nina Hamza took with this book in turning a horrible situation into a triumphant success. This book warmed my heart and I can't wait to see the expressions on our young readers. I can definitely see this as a potential candidate for a future Battle of the Books competition.

We will consider adding this title to our JFiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.