Title: Kicked Out
Author: A. M. Dassu
Genre: YA
Publisher: Lee and Low Books
Publication Date: April 23, 2024
Rating: 💥💥💥💥💥
In this companion novel to the acclaimed Boy, Everywhere, A.M. Dassu returns to extend the story of Sami's best friend Ali, who organizes a charity soccer match for their friend Aadam while his whole life is privately unraveling.
After their friend Mark's mum wins the lottery and gets a giant house with an indoor pool, Ali and Sami have been having the time of their lives hanging at Mark's house. Even their friend Aadam gets a job there, which means he can make more money for his legal battle for UK residency. But when some money goes missing, Aadam is accused of stealing it--and all three boys are unceremoniously kicked out of Mark's house in suspicion.
On top of that, Ali's dad, who abandoned the family when Ali was little, is suddenly turning up everywhere in town, and a half-brother Ali never knew has shown up at Ali's school. Ali feels miserable and resentful about it, making it hard to be a good friend.
The boys know Aadam is innocent, and if he doesn't raise thousands of pounds right away, he could get deported back to Syria amidst its civil war. At least Ali has a plan: they'll host a charity football penalty match to raise money for Aadam so he can stay in the UK.
But can Ali pull together the match--even if he feels his whole life at home is falling apart?
My thoughts:
Wow. I started this book before I went to sleep this morning, and got back started on it as soon as I woke up. This was such a simply amazing read that kept me wanting to devour it until I was finished. There were many lessons, ( and not just for teens, but adults as well) including how just because they're not blood related, they're still family, as well as the importance of a good and solid friend group, one that will be there for ypu when needed as well as to hold ypu accountable, also when needed. Although the book tackles tough situations, it was one that I couldn't put down. This is another new to me authors that will be on my list of authors to look out for.
About the Author
A. M. DASSU is the internationally acclaimed author of Boy, Everywhere and Fight Back, which have collectively been listed for forty-six awards, including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Carnegie Medal, The Little Rebels Award for Radical Fiction, the American Library Association Notable Book List and Jane Addams Peace Book Award.
She is a director at Inclusive Minds, which is an organisation for people who are passionate about inclusion, diversity, equality and accessibility in children’s literature; a patron of The Other Side of Hope, a literary magazine edited by immigrants and refugees, which serves to celebrate the refugee and immigrant communities worldwide, and one of The National Literacy Trust’s Connecting Stories campaign authors, aiming to help inspire a love of reading and writing in children and young people.
A. M. Dassu grew up in the Midlands dreaming of becoming a writer but studied economics instead and worked in marketing and project management before realising her dream. Her work has been published by The Huffington Post, Times Educational Supplement, SCOOP Magazine, Lee and Low Books, Scholastic, Old Barn Books, DK Books and Harper Collins, Hachette, Oxford University press and Scholastic. She writes books that challenge stereotypes, humanise the ‘other’ and are full of empathy, hope and heart. Her most recent book, Boot It! was a bestselling World Book Day novel.
A. M. Dassu used her publishing deal advances for Boy, Everywhere to assist Syrian refugees in her city and set up a grant to support an unpublished refugee/recently immigrated writer. She has donated a part of her advances for Kicked Out to Baca, a UK charity that supports young people who arrive in the UK alone seeking asylum (www.bacacharity.org.uk/about), and to Syrians in Idlib, who lost everything once again due to the devastating earthquake in 2023.
Twitter @a_reflective
Instagram @a.m.dassu
www.amdassu.com.
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