Gr. 7-10. What is it like to be an illegal alien in New York now? In a moving first-person, present-tense narrative, Nadira, 14, relates how her family left Bangladesh, came to the U. S. on a tourist visa, and stayed long after the visa expired (Everyone does it. You buy a fake social security number for a few hundred dollars and then you can work. ). Their illegal status is discovered, however, following 9/11, when immigration regulations are tightened. When the family hurriedly seeks asylum in Canada, they are turned back, and Nadira's father, Abba, is detained because his passport is no longer valid. The secrets are dramatic (Go to school. Never let anyone know. Never. ), and so are the family dynamics, especially Nadira's furious envy of her gifted older sister, Aisha. But Aisha breaks down, and Nadira must take over the struggle to get Abba out of detention and prevent the family's deportation. The teen voice is wonderfully immediate, revealing Nadira's mixed-up feelings as well as the diversity in her family and in the Muslim community. There's also a real drama that builds to a tense climax: Did Abba give funds to a political organization? Where has the money gone? Will Immigration hear his appeal? The answer is a surprise that grows organically from the family's story. Readers will feel the heartbreak, prejudice, kindness, and fear. Add this to the titles in New Immigration Materials \b in the August 2005 issue's Spotlight on Immigration. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2005 Booklist

Gr 7-10-The Hossain family, immigrants from Bangladesh, have been living in New York illegally for many years after their tourist visas expired. Nadira, a shy 14-year-old, has always been jealous of her overachieving older sister, Aisha. But her self-absorbed feelings seem inconsequential after the girls' father, Abba, is arrested at the U.S.-Canadian border shortly after 9/11 for having an expired visa. While their mother remains in a Canadian homeless shelter, the girls return to Queens to stay with relatives and await Abba's fate. The threat of deportation always looms. Certain that she can convince the government that their father's arrest was a mistake, Aisha begins a letter-writing campaign. But when it becomes clear that these efforts are in vain, Aisha's confidence crumbles and she gives up-on everything. It's up to Nadira to be the glue that holds her family together. When Abba's trial begins, Nadira calls upon an inner strength she didn't realize she possessed. Marina Budhos's novel (Atheneum, 2006) paints a compelling portrait of what it was like to be a Muslim teen living in the United States following 9/11. The characters are believable and well-rounded, especially Nadira, who grows from a naive and whiny teenager into a mature, level-headed young woman. Abby Craden's softly accented voice brings to life the emotional turmoil felt by the sisters, and she portrays male and female characters equally well. An excellent listen and an important addition to the study of the immigrant experience.-Alissa Bach, Oxford Public Library, MI (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(High School) When terrorists slammed planes into the World Trade Center, they changed the lives of thousands of illegal immigrants in the United States. Budhos's moving, quietly powerful novel explores the effects of the Patriot Act and special registration on fourteen-year-old Nadira's family, who arrived from Bangladesh eight years ago and have lived productively but illegally in New York (Queens) ever since. When the post-9/11 pressures become too much for this Muslim family and they seek and are refused asylum in Canada, Nadira's father is detained at the U.S. border, and Nadira realizes that it is up to her to fight for him. Considered ""dreamy"" and ""slow"" in comparison to her brilliant older sister Aisha, Nadira finds new reserves of persistence and ingenuity as she struggles to refute false accusations and hold her family together. Budhos alludes to the grueling horrors of detention but, appropriately for her audience, focuses on its indirect emotional impact on her teenage protagonist. Nadira and Aisha's strategies for surviving and succeeding in high school offer sharp insight into the narrow margins between belonging and not belonging, and though the resolution of the story is perhaps more optimistic than realistic, it feels earned. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Illegal immigrant sisters learn a lot about themselves when their family faces deportation in this compelling contemporary drama. Immigrants from Bangladesh, Nadira, her older sister Aisha and their parents live in New York City with expired visas. Fourteen-year-old Nadira describes herself as "the slow-wit second-born" who follows Aisha, the family star who's on track for class valedictorian and a top-rate college. Everything changes when post-9/11 government crack-downs on Muslim immigrants push the family to seek asylum in Canada where they are turned away at the border and their father is arrested by U.S. immigration. The sisters return to New York living in constant fear of detection and trying to pretend everything is normal. As months pass, Aisha falls apart while Nadira uses her head in "a right way" to save her father and her family. Nadira's need for acceptance by her family neatly parallels the family's desire for acceptance in their adopted country. A perceptive peek into the lives of foreigners on the fringe. (endnote) (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

As Budhos's (House of Waiting, for adults) provocative novel opens, 14-year-old narrator Nadira Hossain and her family are heading north to Canada, seeking asylum from the harassment that has become routine in the U.S. in the wake of 9/11. The family left Bangladesh for America eight years ago on a tourist visa and stayed; the first lawyer they hired to make them legal citizens was a fraud, the second was unsuccessful. At Flushing High in Queens, with a large population of immigrant students, the "policy" is "Ask me no questions," according to Nadira. But just as her sister, Aisha, is interviewing at colleges like Barnard, with a shot at valedictorian, the questions start coming hard and fast to the people of their community-some of whom disappear in the night with immigration officers, detained for months before being deported. In a desperate move, the Hossains travel to Canada, where they are turned away; their father, Abba, is placed in a U.S. jail cell at the border, their mother remains in a shelter nearby, and the girls return to Queens to stay with their aunt and uncle. The message drives the story here; the motivations of the characters are not always clear, and the ending may strike some as a bit tidy. But the events of the novel are powerful enough to engage readers' attention and will make them pause to consider the effects of a legal practice that preys on prejudice and fear. Ages 10-14. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved