Madeline
This young adult book is all about how two teenagers come back together through a political campaign. And that is only the tip of the political iceberg for these two people. They go canvassing and call politicians and of course there is a social media campaign involved. It is all politics all the time.
Premise of This Young Adult Book
Jamie’s cousin works for a politician who is running for local office in Atlanta who makes Jamie help with the campaign. After the politician makes an appearance at a local mosque, Jamie is reunited with his Childhood friend Maya. With false pretenses, they start canvassing together, knocking on doors and asking for votes.
During this period a law to ban headscarves has been put on the table. As a Muslim and a daughter of someone who wears a headscarf, Maya is directly impacted and therefore takes a political stance. Jamie joins her in this stance and they both become passionate about politics which in the end brings them together both romantically and as political young adults.
A big part of the story revolves around Jamie’s sister’s Bat Mitzvah and Maya fasting during Ramadan, emphasizing their religions. Not only are we now discussing politics but conflicting religions as well. As someone who is in a Jewish and Muslim relationship myself, I had to roll my eyes at this aspect of the book. The only redeeming quality is that they did not make it a conflict that they needed to overcome.
Final Thoughts
The story was cute but pushed the political matters way too hard. That being said, if the religion and politics were removed, you have two teenagers who are brought together and fall for eachother just like every other young adult book. Not very proprietary. Adding the political parts made this book what it was and for that I can get on board.
