1. The art Of course I have to start with the art! This is a graphic novel and it is all about that art~ Well, I can tell you that I really like the art and how it looks! Tons of diversity, great character designs, good colours, and more!
2. Family This book is not just about basketball and finding your way in a new school and a new place, it is also about family! Not just Aliya’s mom, dad, two brothers, but we also see her grandparents. We see how close-knit the family is and how they all just click together. We see them hanging out on the couch watching movies, eat yummy foods, have great family meals, talk about sports, and there is more. I just loved this family! Oh, and I laughed when the dad confessed how, when he was younger, thought that Mecca was way nearer to him than it actually was.
3. Basketball I am normally not a big sports fan, as in I do love at times checking things out for the Olympics, but I do love reading about it in books. And the author definitely made the basketball in this one very engaging. Because you don’t just start with a team that is perfect, you see the girls work HARD. Train HARD. Have some disappointments. Fight and find their strengths. Get better. It was just all very fun to read and you find yourself 100% rooting for the girls. You want them to get better, start kicking some serious ass. Whoop some other teams. Let’s goooo! Plus, their coach was the sweetest and I loved how she tried to find out more about the culture/religion, eat various foods, try out new things. She really was there for the girls in every aspect and that made me smile so much.
Oh, and I loved seeing our MC, Aliya, train hard outside of school. She really wants to get better!
4.Friendship Aliya is all new in the school and she is not really happy about things, but I loved that she found friends so fast, especially when the team gets formed she gains many more friends, but she has a couple of friends who are closer to her and I was just so happy for her. It hasn’t been easy for Aliya, she left her bestie back in Florida, so I love how she made friends so easily and seeing them get closer and closer!
5 Culture/Religion Aliya and her friends/family are Muslim and we see how that is for them in daily life, from wearing a hijab when outside the house to praying (and I loved how the coach tried to accommodate them so they could do prayers) to many more aspects. But also seeing the not so happy parts, the micro-aggressions, the way the reporters acted, how the other teams treated Aliya’s team as if they were bad because they were wearing what they were wearing. And see how the girls react to that, I loved how they also got stronger in their replies.