As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow 🖋 Zoulfa Katouh

 "This is the price of a future with freedom, Khawf. It's a price Hamza pays every day. But I'm Syrian. This is my land, and just like the lemon trees that have been growing here for centuries, spilt blood won't stop us. I have my faith in God. He'll protect me. I've been force-fed oppression, but i will no longer swallow its bitter taste. No matter what."

 

🍋A year ago Syria set out on a quest to attain freedom. In response to the revolution, the dictatorship swore to tear their lives apart. Salama, who had just completed her first year in pharmacy school is now, at eighteen years old, a practicing doctor, closing more eyes than she ever thought she would. All she has left in the world is Layla, her best friend (and sister in law) who is 7 months pregnant and a promise she made her brother to keep her safe. To make matters worse her guilt and trauma manifests in a hallucination of a man named Khawf who arrives every night urging her to leave her country. As Salama tries to find a way to leave however she meets Kenan, a boy who would risk his life for his country, who amidst the chaos gives her a hope of not just survival but also happiness. But as tension rises and the pain and suffering in her grows, Salama must make a choice between Syria and fulfilling her promise before its too late.

📝A few intriguing details:

• I have never cried while reading a book with such vigour as i did with this one. The book goes beyond the physical aspects of war and the painful numbers. It shows the internal trauma that is slowly built and how deeply it can affect a person. How children are stripped of their innocence at such a young age, starved and killed mercilessly. How mere teenagers have to balance the world on their shoulders and say goodbye to their tender dreams while the rest of the world sleeps unaware of what is happening to them. The story is painful but shows the grim reality of the lives of those living with war. 

• The love story that sprouts in the midst of this revolution is so beautiful to read. In it lies a hope that even in the darkest times one can still see the colours, that a might life in your dreams still has an option to become a reality. 

• As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow is a book one must read at least once in your life. The novel is a great read for ages 14 and above.

The Night Diary 🖋 Veera Hiranandani

'I have seen things I never thought I'd see. There were men fighting. There was blood. I don't know if the train will stop and more fighting will happen and more people will be killed, including us. If anyone finds this, please send it to Kazi Syed in Mirpur Khas. Please remember us. Please remember the way it used to be when India was whole.'

 🇮🇳 The year is 1947. Distrust and conflict is brewing in the air as the India-Pakistan split becomes imminent. Young Nisha lives in Pakistan with her Hindu father, twin brother and grandmother. As disputes and anger rises among the people of the newly formed nations, they are faced with no choice but to leave for India before the situation aggravates. Along the long dangerous journey away from her dear home town, Nisha writes letters to her late mother, a Muslim, narrating her struggles and relaying her desperation as she questions humanity and what  independence truly means.

📝 A few intriguing details:

• The Night Diary is written in the form of a compilation of letters to her mother in which Nisha pours out her deepest thoughts and experiences onto the pages as one would a diary. I think reading this book knowing that despite never having even met her mother before, (her mother had passed soon after Nisha and her brother Amil was born) Nisha carried her memory on and valued her spiritual presence by writing to her and sharing the troubles they'd have had to go through had she been there is in a way quite special.
•  This book provides a great deal of insight to the reader on the civil war that took place in the year of 1947 and is a brilliant read for age 11 and above.

Alebrijes 🖋 Donna Barba Higuera

 '"But when you see even the smallest bit of green, know that someone who has left the world before is sending us a bit of the Old-World back, reminding us we are still loved."' 

🐝 Leandro and his sister, Gabi are pickpockets trying their best to get by in the post apocalypse world they live in; the land is barren, water is scarce and big sprouting trees and flowing rivers are but things of stories and fairytales that grow harder and harder to believe every day. Their people, the Cascabels, are treated like slaves in the city of Pocatel that they live in which gives Leandro and Gabi no choice but to find a way to escape. But Leandro gets caught in the process and is  sent to the Centre of Banishment where he is presented with two choices : be trapped in a vault where his mind would be imprisoned or live within a drone of a hummingbird - an alebrije - in which he could travel outside Pocatel and be reunited with his body when he returns. He chooses the latter option which opens up an array of different challenges as he takes off into the air to find the other alebrijes before him who never returned, save the Cascabels from the thinning that is awaiting them and return home safely to his sister before its too late.

📝 A few intriguing details:

• This story takes place in the San Joaquin Valley in California around 400 years into the future. Interestingly enough, the Old-World tech they speak of like the drones (which are mechanical replicas of animals and creatures) are still quite 'new' to our current world.
• The Cascabels or los cascabels in the book are essentially snake people with the word cascabel meaning rattlesnake. The tale incorporates important aspects of Mexican culture and quite a bit of spanish, the language the cascabels speak. The songs they sing and their dance all give the story a rather unique feel.

The Outlaws Scarlett & Browne 🖋 Jonathan Stroud

 "The secret of being a successful outlaw was to move fast and stay light on your feet. No ties, no allegiance. Rob one town, head for the next; fling yourself into the wastes between. Never look back."

🗡️ Scarlett McCain was a young mercenary by all means; she travelled across anarchic Britain, robbing one bank after the next, killing off anyone and anything who gets in her way. And everything was going quite splendiferous for her; she'd just stolen a hefty sum and had evaded capture from the militiamen so dead set on taking her down...that is until she came across a boy named Albert Browne, a boy with a great power, someone who the militia want much more than they do her. Now Albert and Scarlett must travel across the country infested with post-apocalyptic beasts of all shapes and sizes to a safe haven while their merciless adversaries strive to hunt them down.

📝 A few intriguing details;

• One major reason why re-reading this book is such a joy are the dumb jokes and inherently funny characters like Albert and Joe (an old man who takes our protagonists to their final destination) which perfectly balances the violence and darker themes we explore throughout the tale.
• Being one of the few books on my shelf filled with gun fights, crazy evolved animals, truly fascinating deep characters and chilling descriptions of dystopian Europe,
  'The Outlaws Scarlett & Browne' is without a doubt a brilliant read.

Legends & Lattes 🖋 Travis Baldree

 "An orc's life was strength and violence and a sudden, sharp end - but she'd be damned if she let hers finish that way.                                              It was time for something new."

☕️Viv, an orc, had lived a long 22 years of slaying monsters for a living when she finally decided to follow her true dream - starting a coffee shop. She puts her barbaric past behind her and travels to the city of Thune where she decides to open up her fine establishment. Here Viv must fight through obstacles big and small (the biggest being the fact that no one in Thune even knows what coffee is) and make her aspirations comes true regardless of the fact that her rivals want to drag her down.

📝A few intriguing details:

• I truly love this book for multiple reasons,` the main being the cool characters from the hardworking hob Cal to the huge fluffy cat that pops into their coffee shop from time to time. Reading this automatically sets you in a cosy atmosphere; one can practically hear the music and chatter in the background, smell the coffee and the cinnamon rolls in the air, feel the warmth of the atmosphere. What is more, the cozy vibes are perfectly balanced with the challenges, battles and fights that occur throughout the book creating an absolutely divine low-
• stakes narrative.

Other Words for Home 🖋Jasmine Warga

"'You should care about your country too', he says.

'I do', I say, but what I mean is that I care about my brother and my baba and my mama and I just want to live in a country where we can all have dinner again without shouting about our president or rebels and revolution."

🏠 Jude loved the coastal town in Syria that she lived in; the smell of jasmine and saltwater in the air, the long stretches of the beach and her father’s store where he sold candy bars, soft drinks and magazines to tourists. But as a revolution arose and danger stood right around the corner, Jude was forced to leave her war torn country with her pregnant mother, leaving her brother and father behind, to her uncles house in the United States. The hustle and bustle of Cincinnati, the whole new title of 'middle eastern' that she and the things that were just called 'normal' back at home were now given and the prejudices she now faces being one of the few muslim girls in her school frighten her, but this new life also brings her new possibilities, friends and a chance to show the world who she really is.

📝A few intriguing details:

📝One of my most favourite parts about this book is the relationship between Jude and her brother; how even as they stand on two different sides of the Atlantic they are able to love each other and understand that their different dreams and ideals do not change the love they share.

📝Another interesting thing about this book is that this story is told in free verse. This means that its written in a format like a free verse poem.

No Fixed Address 🖋 Susin Nielsen

“ ‘Don’t you worry. I will figure something out. I always do.’ ”

 🏠Felix Knutson and his mother Astrid were on their third house when they moved into their van and although it started off as just a home for the summer and Astrid said it was only temporary, Felix had this daunting feeling that it wasn't. And Felix wasn't to tell anyone about this lest he ends up with the MCFD*. But when his favourite trivia game show ‘Who, What, Where, When’ gets a junior edition with an epic cash price, Felix finally gets a chance to turn his life around. Though the effectiveness of this plan…you’ll have to read to find out.

📝 A few intriguing details:

 📝 I absolutely loved the character Winnie (one of Felix’s best friends) in this book. A shrewd and smart witted french student with an impeccable taste in fashion. She remains as one of my most cherished deuteragonist (secondary main character) of all time. 

 📝The book talks about the 'hidden homeless', those without a permanent home who instead take to living with family/friends, cars, shelters or motels. Having no home, bed or bathroom can take a drastic effect on peoples mental and physical health which has been portrayed in this story.

 📝 MCFD or Ministry of Child and Family Development has the main aim of safeguarding children from abuse and neglect. In the book, though Astrids actions were always of love to protect Felix, she was unable to care for him in ways like providing him a roof over his head that wasn't that of a cramped up van. She herself had episodes with the MCFD during her childhood whose result was being parted with her brother which lead her to believe that the Ministry wouldn't do them any good.