Lovely novel in verse which tied together multiple different plots. Sometimes it felt as if the story sped through some of the elements, and while Aafiyah's perspective was really rich, with a personality that encompassed positive and negative traits, and a lot of vulnerability, side characters and relationships like Zaina, Imran, and even little brother Ibrahim weren't very well-defined.

I read this aloud to my 11 and 8 year old daughters--they adored it. This book was everything the description says--uplifting, hopeful, full of lessons and slight mysery. My girls are sensitive to anything they perceive as very scary or creepy, This book was the perfect amount of cliff hanger, paired with warm and fuzzy. The book allowed us several talking points and was diverse---all things I look for in a book. 5 stars--we loved it!

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in return for an honest review.

Golden Girl is a beautifully written verse novel addressing a family crisis, a habit with potentially big consequences, and navigating friendships when you hurt the other person. Definitely a book I will be adding to my verse collection!

Golden Girl is a touching, realistic coming-of-age story about trying to break bad habits and dealing with a family crisis. This will pull at your heartstrings because we've all been through one familial crisis or another and we've all done things we weren't proud of. Readers will root for Afiyah as she tries to be better for herself and her loved ones. A brilliant, engaging verse novel for tween and adult readers alike.

I was so excited to read this after really enjoying the author's other novel-in-verse, Unsettled. I am a big fan of the novel-in-verse style, and Reem Faruqi is truly wonderful at it. There was so much packed into this beautiful book; immigration, incarcerated parent, kleptomania, illness of family member, multi-generation household, family, friendships, tennis. I loved how much was explored and that Faruqi was able to make the characters and events come to life in such sparse words. Her books have become instant reads for me. I would recommend this to readers that enjoyed the author's previous work, as well as those that enjoyed titles such as Amina's Voice and Front Desk and other novels-in-verse such as Inside Out and Back Again and The Crossover..

I just finished reading Golden Girl by Reem Faruqi! It's a really sweet novel in verse about a young girl, Aafiyah. She lives a great life with her family in Atlanta, but she has a small secret: she's addicted to stealing small things..lip gloss from a friend, a trinket off a teacher's desk, etc. She doesn't think her little habit will have any effect on anyone or anything. When her family falls on hard times, she is certain her secret can help them all.

I loved Faruqi's other novel in verse, Unsettled. While this wasn't quite up to par with that one, it was a fast read with endearing characters!

Golden Girl is an artfully written novel-in-verse. The main character, Aafiyah, will capture and hold the attention of readers from the very first page to the very last page of her story. Her experiences with her family and friends are interesting and thought-provoking.

Thank you to HarperCollins Books and NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Told in verse, Reem Faruqi draws heavily from her life experiences (see the author’s note at the end). Aafiyah, age 13, is Pakistani-American and going through typical teenage girl issues. She loves playing tennis and hanging out with her best, and only, friend, Zaina. Aafiyah also has a bad habit of “borrowing” other people’s items without their permission. She usually returns them secretly when the owner notices the missing items but not always. When Aafiyah and her family are returning from a trip to Pakistan, her father is falsely accused of a crime and imprisoned. Months go by and her father’s status doesn’t change. The once affluent family is now struggling financially. While at Zaina’s house, Aafiyah sees Zaina’s sister’s wedding jewelry and her fingers get that twitchy feeling. Will Aafiyah give in to her bad habit?
This is a beautifully told story which may seem totally made up until you read about Faruqi’s experiences. Almost all kids and teens have bad habits that can get them into trouble, making Aafiyah relatable. Writing in verse allows for beautiful expression and makes it a quick read – great for reluctant readers. Definitely recommend for readers in grades 3 and up.
#GoldenGirl #NetGalley

Yet another beautifully written novel-in-verse by Reem Faruqi! Aafiyah is a 7th grader who loves to read Weird but True and hang out with her best friend, Zaina. Things seem great until she realizes that she often likes to “borrow” things without asking. It is like this uncontrollable impulse she can’t fight away. It is not until her family heads back to the States from a trip to Pakistan that the worst thing possible could happen… her Abba (father) is wrongly accused of a crime he did not commit–embezzlement. Aafiyah takes it upon herself to get her Abba back, even if it results in “borrowing” again… A coming of age story where readers can connect to Aafiyah with her struggles of impulse, personal growth, and family problems.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the e-ARC to read and review. There will always be a special place in my heart for kids who are stuck in the middle of a whole world of adult problems, and still try to find ways to help - however wonky their results are.

In this story, we're introduced to Aafiyah, a middle schooler who's always known a very comfortable life until things start changing in her family. Suddenly, her family is dealing with big illness and other challenges that unfold. The story is incredibly realistic to many tweens and teens, and it's beautifully portrayed. With the best of intentions, Aafiyah thinks maybe she can help her parents pay bills and have less to stress about, but she goes about it all wrong and has to face the consequences. I find that the best reading experience will be if you go in not knowing what the full plot arc or details will be, and just enjoy the story as it unfolds - watching Aafiyah learn her next moves along the way. The expertly crafted verse and relatable storyline are so enjoyable, and not to be missed.

4.5 stars

This is an absolutely charming middle grade novel in verse featuring a flawed but endearing m.c., challenging circumstances, and a rapid flow. It's so speedy, in fact, that after intending to only read a few pages, I found myself finishing the entire novel in one short sitting!

Aafiyah, the m.c., is in middle school, but more importantly, she is living in a space of total turmoil. She's painted as a character with some particular privileges, including but not limited to her family's relative wealth, her family's closeness, her close friendship with her best friend, and (notably for this age group) what sounds like more than average physical beauty. What's interesting about the latter part - and several other elements that appear - is that what seems like a privilege is also a marker of trouble. Aafiyah knows that people recognize her beauty, but Faruqi expertly reveals that this awareness may mark danger and discomfort for Aafiyah at some stage. In fact, that is already starting, but this is not even close to Aafiyah's greatest concern.

As readers get to know Aafiyah, her true struggles become obvious. An unexpected incident creates serious strife for her family, who are all also dealing with a grandparent's serious health concerns. The family's challenged communication and new socioeconomic worries add complexity to an ongoing and growing issue for Aafiyah: her sticky fingers. While stealing isn't a totally unheard of topic in middle grade novels, I have rarely seen it handled as well as Faruqi manages here. This treatment is an absolute standout in a book that is filled with great elements.

While I did - at times - long for more developed explanations of events and characters' experiences, Faruqi manages to accomplish so much in this tightly packaged work. The characters, cultural inclusions, and especially *THE ISSUES* get covered nicely here, and audience members of all ages will find both educational and aesthetic value in this one. I'll be recommending this to students AND looking for much more from this author.

Thank you to #NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for allowing me to read a digital ARC of Golden Girl by Reem Faruqi. This middle grade contemporary novel-in-verse will be published in February 2022. All opinions are my own.

Aafiyah Qamar is in 7th grade. She loves to play tennis, collect facts from National Geographic's Weird but True Facts books, and hangout with her best friend, Zaina, but she also has a secret. She likes to "borrow" things. She just can't help herself. When she sees something she wants, her heart starts beating and her fingers itch until it finds its way into the mouth of her bag. She also has a two-year-old brother who loves to eat things that aren't food and her father works for company that makes and sells airplane parts. When the family travels to Pakistan to visit her grandparents and bring them back to the states, so her grandfather can receive the best treatment for his cancer, things go wrong. Her father is detained and charged with embezzelment. Though they have proof that he is wrongly accused, he's stripped of his passport and must remain there until everything is cleared up. This is a long and arduous process that results in changes for her family. Her mother must get a job. Aafiyah begins to worry about their family and wants to do what she can to help. The only problem is that it involves "borrowing" something that doesn't belong to her.

I loved this book and read it in a single sitting. Faruqi expertly develops rich and fully-developed characters and situations. This book has so many layers. It's about Aafiyah's problem with stealing, but it is also about the complexity of friendships and family relationships. Additionally, it address her family's traditions and religion as Aafiyah struggles with her changing reality and finding her own identity. I love the free verse poetry and how it allows Faruqi to develop so much emotion and evoke detailed and beautiful images in the readers head. The story is lyrical and rhythmic. It pulls you in and makes you want to read more. I loved this book and can't wait to share it with my students.

I struggled reading this book because I read it on my phone and I was flipping through the pages so quickly it was a bit distracting.
But otherwise, I really enjoyed the story. I don't know if I understood (a person's) motivation to steal but it made me appreciate that it wasn't so simple to fix.
I loved how the author interwove the father's story into the plot to give it more depth and meaning.
I really enjoyed the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You guys. This book is adorable.

There's so much packed into these words, and we don't even get 350 pages. Family bonds, tenuous friendship, personal flaws, transcontinental barriers, fighting ignorance...ugh, it was so good.

Aafiyah is a Pakistani-American Muslim girl in seventh grade, and at the opening of the novel, we get a glimpse into her family. She has a little brother, a father who works in the airline industry, and a mother who for the most part is home with her children. Aafiyah loves to hang out with her best friend Zaina, who lives next door, and has tennis after school.

But Aafiyah's hands like to "borrow" things, and after a trip to Pakistan and Dubai to visit her grandparents, her Abba is accused of a crime of which he is completely innocent. Someone in the company that is actually IS guilty of embezzlement gets angry, turns around, and gives Aafiyah's dad a big ol' "no u." With that over his head, her Abba is forced to stay in Dubai with her grandmother until the case is cleared up.

Throw all that into having to be in seventh grade, and you've got a recipe for character development! Faruqi excels at little touches that leave big impacts; one of Aafiyah's favorite things are weird but true facts, and whenever one is inserted into the story, it has direct correlation to something Aafiyah is thinking or feeling, or something that's happening in the plot. Instead of singling out the main character as "omg i'm sooooOoO quirky" it feels purposeful and makes sense.

I know the author herself is a Pakistani-American Muslim, and yes, there are moments when an author doesn't know how to subtly incorporate culture and make it smooth. You know, when a character who is supposed to be a part of a culture reads as though they've just become a part of it? That's not the case here. Aafiyah and her family and friends feel 100% authentic, and I learned a lot about the way heirloom jewelry is viewed as INCREDIBLY special in Pakistani families. I don't wear a lot of jewelry (tactile issues; thanks, OCD), and getting to see such a unique part of a culture that's very different from New England's was so fascinating.

My biggest checkmark? The books ends happily. That's something I go to for middle grade, especially in these incredibly stressful times we're living through, and by the end of GOLDEN GIRL, everything is right with the world, even though it's still a difficult little planet to live on sometimes. Highly recommend this one for any reader!

I began reading this book not having any idea what it was about. All I knew, or all I cared to know, was that the incredibly amazingly talented Reem Faruqi wrote it, so I wanted to read it. While I know it will be hard for most to avoid knowing the plot, I think it was a blessing that I was able to be swept away so completely and so fully in a story that is wonderful and memorable, and truly sets a higher standard for the way that a story can be told. Faruqi's voice and authenticity had me in tears. I didn't even realize my eyes were dripping until my son asked me if I was ok. It wasn't the plot that had my emotions spilling over, sure it helped, but it was the storytelling, the hadith and deen and snapshot of a life so unlike my own that simultaneously is exactly my own that a physical reaction emerged. It is the power of OWN voice storytelling. It is the power of brilliant writing. It is not just a book about a Muslim character, this book blurs the lines for me between Islamic fiction and fiction with Muslim characters. Middle grade readers will enjoy the book, older readers will enjoy and appreciate the 336 page story told in verse. You can pre-order the book and I hope you will, it helps convey the message to publishers that this book is highly anticipated and that we need voices like this. Additionally, Goodreads currently is hosting a giveaway, you can head there to try and win a free copy.

(If you don't want to know what the story is about, maybe skip the next section.)

SYNOPSIS:
Aafiyah's name means well-being, protection, health, money, happiness, everything good, but Aafiyah has secrets too. She is privileged and loved, and she knows it, but sometimes when she sees something she likes she accidentally borrows it. Sometimes it isn't an accident. Sometimes she doesn't just borrow. Much of her life is wonderful, a best friend that lives next door, doting parents, tennis, vacations, trips to Pakistan to visit grandparents, and a love of "weird but true facts." So what happens when all that changes. When her grandfather gets sick and the family wants to bring him to America for treatment, when Aafiyah's dad gets detained and imprisoned on the way home, and Aafiyah's secret may be a way to help her family?

WHY I LIKE IT:
I absolutely love that the characters are so well rounded and developed. Yes, Muslims have vices, and even young practicing Muslims have tests and struggles. The bar has been raised, we aren't just a monolith, and our only struggles aren't girl/boy issues, alcohol, not being oppressed and getting an education, we are complex people, we are human. The bulk of the story is Aafiyah growing up: her responsibility within her family, her changing body and appearance, her friendships, her responsibility for her actions, her desire to want to help and improve and step in to her own. I love that all these layers of life somehow are explored in such sparse lines. It doesn't drag, but it gives the necessary pauses to involve the reader in her logic and view of the world. Aafiyahs' kleptomaniac tendencies, her father being detained, her grandfather's illness. they all move the story along, but they are foils for a much more intimate character story. A story that is surprisingly funny and light and impossible to put down.

I absolutely love how Islam is woven in, how she exudes Islam in all that she is, because she is a Muslim completely, the good and the bad. The guilt she feels, the desperation to be forgiven, the knowing that Allah swt sees all. The book is never even close to being preachy, but she proudly owns her identity and the details of her faith are not watered down, or even justified, it is who she is and it isn't up for debate.

Culture is presented unapologetically as well. She is critical of things she sees in Pakistan, and similarly celebrates and admires good things about Pakistan and Pakistani culture. The book does not seem to have an agenda in presenting Muslims or Pakistan as good or bad, just as Aafiyah sees them. Which isn't revolutionary on the surface, but it really is refreshing because it highlights how many books simply don't. It makes the contrast painfully obvious between books that are shy about certain things, when they have their characters deflect and disassociate from certain "realities" and books that confidently uphold their identity and demand that the reader steps up and truly see the characters and their experiences.

There is a beautiful and raw author's note at the end that shares some of the inspiration for the threads of the book, a glossary, a recipe for Aloo Gosht and resources for help with kleptomania.

FLAGS:
Stealing, lying, chatter about crushes, music, dancing. Being attractive and the reactions that it gets is woven through out.

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

If I have a majority girl group, I will teach this. It isn't a girl only book, but I think some of the more subtle themes would need a safer girl space to discuss.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy. This story of a kleptomaniac, Pakistani teenager tells the story of friendship, coming of age, redemption, and family. I appreciate that it is clean and shows some aspects of Southeast Asian culture. While not written in rhyme, the free verse poetry is easy to read and evokes a lot of emotion. Cancer, false accusations, loss of income, and crushes can also be discussed. I am recommending this for our school library. Thank you for a happy ending!

More Twists Than Expected

Based on the description of this novel in verse, I expected a fairly straight-forward story about a girl learning her lesson not to steal. It definitely has the element to it, but to say it is just that would be to ignore the sweeping global scale of this story that somehow still manages to remain deeply personal. In large part, this story is based on the author’s own experiences with the line between right and wrong and how the individual and the world can often mix those up.

That said, large aspects of the main plot did not start until nearly halfway through the story, which made the beginning hard to invest in. Nevertheless, this short story is definitely worth your time.

(spoiler alerts)

Golden Girl by Reem Faruqi tells the story of Aafiyah, a seventh-grade Pakistani American giri living in Atlanta. Her life is one of privilege and comfort - except Aafiyah struggles with compulsive stealing, or as she calls it, "borrowing." Her life as she knows it is upended however, when her father is falsely accused of embezzling funds from his job and is held in the United Arab Emirates until a judge hears his case and reviews the evidence. Aafiyah returns to Atlanta with her mother, younger brother and grandfather (who is undergoing chemotherapy), but her dad's case and the expenses associated with it and her grandfather's medical treatments weigh heavily on her. And so she makes a decision that changes everything - stealing her best friend Zaina's sister's wedding jewelry in order to pawn it to help her family out.

On the plus sides, this book addresses the topic of compulsive stealing and highlights a Muslim American family living their lives - there is plenty of rich cultural and religious detail, and it fills a much needed gap of books featuring kids of color just being kids. There is tremendous value in these types of stories, and ordinarily, this would have resulted in an instant 4+ star rating from me.

However, I am giving it three stars because I am deeply concerned at the portrayal of Aafiyah's compulsive behavior and the lack of distinction between her prior compulsive thefts and the premeditated theft of Muzna's jewelry. Once caught, Aafiyah is filled with remorse, but also vows to do better, and the end of the book seems to suggest that she does just this - her compulsive stealing is a thing of the past simply because she decides it is going to be so. This is a damaging and ableist narrative that suggests that people with compulsive behaviors (theft, skin/hair picking, OCD ritualistic behavior) can stop simply because they will themselves to do so. Aafiyah does reference coping strategies towards the end of the book, but there's no insight as to how she developed them or that she knows that what she's doing is compulsive (most of the time) and how that differs from her intentional theft. The author's note too is a missed opportunity - we get lovely insights into how grounded Faruqi has made this story in terms of real life events, but there's only a line at the end with a URL to learn more about kleptomania.

Reem Faruqi's novels in verse are absolutely stunning. The way her words create vivid pictures in your mind is simply magical. The story of wanting the thrill, seeking something more and pursuing the limits without really wanting to are all addressed within this story of an international family facing bigger challenges of their own.

Thank you to the publisher for the e-ARC of this novel in verse.

Golden Girl was an enjoyable and incredibly quick read. It covers several topics, that I have not seen otherwise included in children's literature. I think it's a great addition to classroom libraries.