“Being brave is when you are scared of something — but you do it anyway.” (p. 206)

Izzy is experiencing a lot of anxiety-inducing change in her life — her father came back injured after serving in Afghanistan and they’ve had to move because he can no longer run his fishing boat. They’ve moved to an apartment over the marina her dad now runs but her mother has left for Block Island (RI) for the summer to help at a family restaurant. Izzy misses her old house and her Mom and because she’s in so much turmoil, she risks her friendship with her two best friends, the “Sea Stars.” Just after Izzy starts at her new, bigger regional middle school, her father invites the Haidary family — her father’s interpreter in Afghanistan — to live in their 3rd floor apartment. The Haidarys’ daughter Satira will be joining Izzy at school and they’ve been assigned to the daily news class with the “Sea Stars.” Tensions build as some students harass Satira for wearing her hijab and Izzy must face her fears and learn to be brave and learn how to be a friend and an upstander. Although readers will be disappointed that the bully is not punished or reconciled, this is an authentic book about middle school that shares the experience of immigrants and discrimination against immigrants and the struggles of soldiers returning from war with oft-hidden injuries like PTSD.

Reviewed by Karen Sandlin Silverman, Mt. Ararat Middle School, Topsham