Here to STay

Review from School Library Journal:

For most of his time at an exclusive Boston private school, Bijan Majidi, a JV basketball player and good student, has kept his head down. After he's called up and subbed for a varsity player who's fouled out of a crucial game, Bijan leads the scoring in an upset victory and suddenly becomes popular. But when he gets involved in a petition drive to change the mascot of the tradition-bound school—largely to spend time near his crush, squash team standout Elle Powell—he finds he's run afoul of Will Thomas, a post-grad senior whose wealthy family includes major contributors to the school. An anonymous email sent to the entire community portrays Bijan as a terrorist, apparently based on his American-born mother of Iranian descent and a (now deceased) Jordanian father. While parents and friends pull together to out the culprit and bring those involved to justice, Bijan endures cruel pranks and crushing social isolation. Farizan portrays the richness and warmth of the Persian culture of Bijan's proud mother. A touching subplot explores the romance and high school politics of a budding lesbian relationship. The text is thick with topical allusions—TV actors, brand names, recent films, comic references—as well as detailed basketball descriptions that could be opaque to some readers, but their meaning is typically obvious from context.