It Ain't So Awful, Falafal

"It is the first time in my entire life that the shah is no longer the ruler. I have a huge science test today, but I feel like my brain has just frozen. I wish my dad could write a note: Please excuse Cindy from the test today. Our country just had a revolution." (161)

It Ain't So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas

When Zomorod Yousafzadeh and her family move from Compton to Newport Beach the summer before she begins 6th grade, there are a few very important things on her mind: will she be able to tell her new teachers to call her “Cindy” instead of “Zomorod” before class starts? will she make a friend? and will she ever find the key to the condo’s pool (and if she doesn’t, will mom be mad at her forever?) As the year continues, the answers all seem to be yes! Zomorod’s classmates and teachers know her as Cindy, she makes three great friends, and the pool key is found by an odd but friendly neighbor. Even better, it’s not long before people stop teasing her about camels; in fact, her new friends like hearing about Iran, where Zomorod and her family are from. But that’s before everything changes. Zomorod and her family are shocked when they learn that the shah of Iran has been deposed and replaced by the cleric Khomeini. And when 52 U.S. Americans are taken hostage in Iran, the Yousafzadehs are glued to the TV and radio just like the rest of the U.S. But they’re not just like the rest of the U.S. Zomorod’s father loses his job. Her mother sinks into depression. And one day Zomorod walks out her front door to find a dead hamster on their doormat with a note saying Iranians go home! Written in short, engrossing chapters, It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel is a moving meditation on difference, community, and kindness that simultaneously manages to be a highly kid friendly, laugh-out-loud funny tour through the ups and downs of middle school and the Iran Hostage Crisis alike. Subjects this book includes that some readers may be sensitive to (but which others may be thrilled to find sensitively discussed in their literature: racism, microaggressions, hate-motivated acts.

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