Randa Abdel Fattah: 12 books

Randa Abdel-Fattah's new novel about about finding your place in life . . . and learning to accept yourself and your culture. "At school I'm Aussie-blonde Jamie -- one of the crowd. At home I'm Muslim Jamilah -- driven mad by my Stone Age dad. I should win an Oscar for my acting skills. But I...

Just as authors create books, books create authors — and these essays by thirty-one writers for young people offer a fascinating glimpse at the books that inspired them the most. What if you could look inside your favorite authors’ heads and see the book that led them to become who they...

Hayaat and her family spend their days dodging curfews, trying to buy a week’s groceries before the sirens blare, remembering their home among the olive groves before it was taken from them. But when the curfew breaks and her beloved grandmother Sitti is taken to hospital, Hayaat sets out on a mission...

It is a truth universally acknowledged . . . Esma is a modern Muslim woman with an age-old dilemma. She is well-educated, well-travelled and has excellent taste in music, but the hunt for Mr Right leads her to a number of Mr Wrongs. Together with wild-haired Ruby, principled Lisa, and drop-dead gorgeous...

Michael likes to hang out with his friends and play with the latest graphic design software. His parents drag him to rallies held by their anti-immigrant group, which rails against the tide of refugees flooding the country. And it all makes sense to Michael. Until Mina, a beautiful girl from the other...

Don't panic - I'm Islamic! Amal is a 16-year-old Melbourne teen with all the usual obsessions about boys, chocolate and Cosmo magazine. She's also a Muslim, struggling to honour the Islamic faith in a society that doesn't understand it. The story of her decision to "shawl up" is funny, surprising and touching by turns.

Lara Zany is known throughout the school yard as the Friendship Matchmaker-kids who need to make or keep a best friend call on her expertise and follow her hard-and-fast rules to find friendships. Lara's documented everything from friendship categories (the BOBF, or Bus Only Best Friend; the NL, or...

Now that Lara Zany has an Official Best Friend (OBF), her friendship matchmaking days are over. When a boy named Majur transfers to their grade and outplays the school bully, Chris Martin, on the soccer field, Chris's reign of terror is suddenly over. Alone and unable to make friends, Chris turns...

Sixteen-year-old Noah is a troublemaker. His father is a hotshot barrister. This is not a good combination. When Noah gets caught mucking up at school, his dad sends him to work at his aunt's law firm during the holidays to 'learn responsibility' and 'fix his attitude'. There...

Rania drives herself too hard, takes on too much. School work, school captain, a huge art project — there’s so much on her plate right now that it’s starting to overwhelm her. The last thing she needs is competition from her favourite cousin — families are supposed to stick together! The book has messages for her — if she could just work out what they mean ...

Best friends Jodie, Rania and Deyana can’t believe what they have found in the school library — a mysterious book that writes itself, just for them. Jodie’s life is difficult enough — her father is in a new relationship and she’s trying to get used to having a step-sister. The advice the book is giving her is so confusing. Who is the ghostly writer? What does she want?

This book explores Islamophobia in Australia, shifting attention from its victims to its perpetrators by examining the visceral, atavistic nature of people’s feelings and responses to the Muslim ‘other’ in everyday life. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, Islamophobia and Everyday Multiculturalism...