In her novel Kareem Between, Shifa Saltagi Safadi shares a story about the experiences of seventh grader Kareem, who loves football and dreams of being the first Syrian American NFL player. Seeing his name on an American jersey would spell perfection for him, but first he has to earn a position on the middle school team.
Set in Indiana from 2016-2017, Kareem feels invisible since he doesn’t make the football roster and his best friend Adam has moved away. To find comfort, Kareem escapes to the library where the smell of paper and ink and books surrounds him. A lover of words, Kareem uses NFL facts as metaphors for life. Safadi employs additional figurative language examples and definitions as Kareem makes sense of his world, including the puzzling behavior of his sister Jameelah.
Because Kareem’s desire to belong is so strong, when the football coach’s son, Austin, hints at friendship and promises of a place on the team, Kareem caves to the manipulation. Soon, he’s writing papers for Austin, who also copies Kareem’s math homework.
When a Syrian refugee enrolls at Kareem’s junior high school, Fadi is bullied with jeers and jokes while Kareem, afraid he’ll lose his ability to belong, doesn’t speak up to defend Fadi. All of these issues complicate life for Kareem, who decides that “sometimes being from two places, learning two languages, feels like having no full place in either. Having no language at all” (55).
Adding to Kareem’s challenges, his mother is called back to Syria to tend to the health of her ailing father. Leaving the family motherless multiplies Kareem’s challenges. Without her advice and comfort, Kareem feels adrift and empty. Through telephone contact with his jido (maternal grandfather), Kareem receives advice: “The strongest of you are those who control their anger” (100) and “Being a stranger doesn’t mean you are an outsider” (125). This wisdom, however, leaves Kareem wondering whether Jido really knows what it feels like to be Syrian in the United States. Readers accompany Kareem as he confronts and attempts to unravel these complications in his life.
As another reader benefit, Safadi humanizes the history of the travel ban for people from seven majority-Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen when the U.S. was worried about keeping radical terrorist groups out of the country. Because the ban delays the return of Kareem’s mother, Jameelah and Kareem both participate in a protest at O’Haire International Airport in Chicago. Kareem resents that “the bad guys” represent all Muslims. With a hole in his heart, Kareem learns through Fadi that “hope is alive as long as you look for it” (267).
This is a poignant book for any reader who is looking for belonging and feels stuck between countries, between friends, between hopes and reality, and between right and wrong.
- Donna