Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Do You Know Who Your Neighbors Are?



This book opens with Nadira and her family traveling to Canada. She and her family have been living in the United States on expired tourist visas for many years. They go to school and work every day in New York, trying not to be noticed. Nadira's sister Aisha is smart and wants to go to college, but she knows she will never be able to go if the schools find out that she is not in the United States legally. Nadira has always been the younger sister, with not much expected of her. Ask Me No Questions takes place after September 11th, and the Department of Homeland Security is beginning to detain adult males that do not have legal citizenship. Nadira's father wants to try and get the family asylum in Canada so they can get citizenship. But when they try to cross the border into Canada, her father is arrested and detained.
Nadira and Aisha return to New York to go back to school, and are faced with all of the lies they tell every day to cover up their illegal status. Will Aisha be able to go to college? Will their father be deported back to Bangladesh? Nadira begins to take matters into her own hands in a surprising way.

This book made me think about all of the people who live the life Nadira's family does - worrying every day that they will be deported. Budhos makes this story your own - you feel like you are in the car with Nadira and her family on the way to Canada, watching her father be arrested in front of her. Don't miss this book!!

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