This Book Won't Burn

by Samira Ahmed

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

As book banning continues to pose a threat to proper education, Samira Ahmed is here with her signature brand of story that speaks directly to a troubling trend. With timely themes of social justice and activism built into a healthy supply of suspense, this is a book that both entertains and makes a difference.

★ “[Ahmed] employs high stakes, increasing tensions, romantic near-misses, and adult hypocrisy to powerful effect.” –Publisher's Weekly, starred review

From the New York Times bestselling author of Internment comes a timely and gripping social-suspense novel about book banning, activism, and standing up for what you believe. 

After her dad abruptly abandons her family and her mom moves them a million miles from their Chicago home, Noor Khan is forced to start the last quarter of her senior year at a new school, away from everything and everyone she knows and loves.

Reeling from being uprooted and deserted, Noor is certain the key to survival is to keep her head down and make it to graduation. 

But things aren’t so simple. At school, Noor discovers hundreds of books have been labeled “obscene” or “pornographic” and are being removed from the library in accordance with a new school board policy. Even worse, virtually all the banned books are by queer and BIPOC authors. 

Noor can’t sit back and do nothing, because that goes against everything she believes in, but challenging the status quo just might put a target on her back. Can she effect change by speaking up? Or will small-town politics—and small-town love—be her downfall? 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316547840
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/07/2024
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	68,330
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Samira Ahmed is the New York Times bestselling author of Love, Hate, & Other Filters and Internment. She was born in Bombay, India, and has lived in New York, Chicago, and Kauai, where she spent a year searching for the perfect mango. She invites you to visit her online at samiraahmed.com and on Twitter and Instagram @sam_aye_ahm.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/26/2024

Book banning, homophobia, and racism intersect as a newcomer confronts one small town’s “fascist BS” culture. Halfway through senior year, 18-year-old Chicagoan Noor Khan is devastated when her immigration-lawyer father “torched our lives” by abandoning the family. Their distraught mother moves Noor and her younger sister to conservative, rural Bayberry, Ill., for a fresh start. At Noor’s new, overwhelmingly white high school, a zealous school board led by politician Steve Hawley removes hundreds of books deemed pornographic. Activist-minded Noor notes that “they’re censoring practically all queer or BIPOC authors” and stages lunchtime banned book readings at a nearby park with new friends Faiz and Juniper. Though school administration disciplines Noor and hints at violence if she doesn’t comply, she continues hosting her book club in the evenings at a VFW hall until someone tossing a Molotov cocktail through the building’s window escalates events. Meanwhile, Noor’s growing feelings for Faiz are complicated by interest from charming, wealthy, and good-looking Andrew, who turns out to be Hawley’s stepson. Characters display resolute integrity and deliver dialogue that zings in this timely offering by Ahmed (the Amira & Hamza series), who employs high stakes, increasing tensions, romantic near-misses, and adult hypocrisy to powerful effect. Noor cues as Southeast Asian. Ages 12–up. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"With pin-sharp attention to the complexities of grief, anger, and hope, Samira Ahmed gives us a main character who connects us with our own hearts and a story that connects us with our power to change our world."—Anna-Marie McLemore, author of National Book Award nominee Self-Made Boys

* "Ripped from the headlines, Ahmed’s latest novel frames the fight against book banning as a hopeful endeavor in active civic engagement that a wide audience would benefit from reading."—School Library Journal, starred review

From the Publisher

★ 05/01/2024

Gr 10 Up—Ahmed continues to build a catalog of titles that leverage current events and social justice. Noor's world shifted when her father abandoned the family. Her mother moved Noor and her sister to a small town far from the bustling city they were used to. Now, Noor is one of only a few Muslim students in a small homogenous town, and her mere presence is news. Even more so when Noor speaks out upon discovering that library books are being pulled from the shelves. Noor's resonance is a testament to Ahmed's character-building and timely discourse on the subject. With a sense of predictability, the arc of the story is evenly paced to release maximum outrage and extol lessons in fairness and justice. Intensely invested in Noor's fight, readers weather the fight alongside her even when it endangers her family. These consequences are devastatingly realistic and heighten the emotional response that mirrors actual coverage of the newsworthy topic. It feels deeply personal, and to writers like Ahmed, the work is ongoing. VERDICT Ripped from the headlines, Ahmed's latest novel frames the fight against book banning as a hopeful endeavor in active civic engagement that a wide audience would benefit from reading.—Alicia Abdul

School Library Journal

2024-02-17
Reeling from her father’s sudden abandonment of their family, Noor’s mother moves her family to a small Illinois town far away from their life in Chicago.

Noor hopes to lie low and finish out the last quarter of her senior year, but she and her younger sister, Amal, are noticeably among the few Indian American and Muslim students at school. Once Noor learns that the school district has removed over 500 challenged books from the library shelves and slated them for committee review—mostly ones by marginalized writers—she feels compelled to act. She and her like-minded new friends protest by reading aloud from these books in public spaces. They also put up a “fREADom Library” (or Little Free Library for censored books), spreading the word on social media and encouraging others to join in. Their activism angers school administrators, students, and the local community. Along with their personal trauma, Noor’s family must also deal with veiled threats, racist and Islamophobic slurs, and physical violence. The story centers on the hot-button issues of book banning and freedom of speech, while also exploring family dynamics, forging friendships, and a budding love triangle. Although the pacing is at times weighed down by the content, Ahmed inventively uses different formats—social media comments, news articles, transcripts of television broadcasts—to examine the racist ideologies and talking points behind censorship efforts.

A timely story about silence as complicity, defending freedom, and the courage to fight against hate. (author’s note, resources, bibliography) (Fiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews