Kareem Between

Kareem Between

Penguin Random House, 336 pgs., ISBN: 9780593699263, Grades 5 and up

Seventh grade is off to a rough start for Kareem; his best friend has moved away, and football tryouts were a disaster. Things start to look up when the quarterback (and the son of the football coach) befriends Kareem and offers to help him get on the team - for a price. Kareem is caught between his dream of making the football team and his desire to do the right thing. As Kareem wrestles with his conscience, things at home begin to unravel, too. When his mom flies to Syria to help her parents, she finds herself unable to get back home to Chicago. 

Shifa Saltagi Safadi

Shifa Saltagi Safadi was born in Syria and moved to the United States as a child. She started writing stories and poems when she was seven years old. Her seventh children’s book, Kareem Between, is a winner of the National Book Award and the Cybils Novel in Verse Award. Shifa is passionate about sharing her love of reading with kids. She now lives in the Chicagoland area, where she reads, writes, teaches English, and cooks. Her favorite foods are shakriyeh (a lamb yogurt stew served with rice), cheeseburgers with extra onions, and chocolate chip cookies.

Author Website: https://shifasafadi.com/