Ahmed Aziz's Epic Year

by Nina Hamza

Overview

This hilarious and poignant tween debut—which SLJ heralded as “destined to become a classic” in a starred review—tackles evergreen topics like dealing with bullies, making friends, and the power of good books. A great next read for fans of Merci Suárez Changes Gears and John David Anderson.

Ahmed Aziz is having an epic year—epically bad.

After his dad gets sick, the family moves from Hawaii to Minnesota for his dad’s treatment. Even though his dad grew up there, Ahmed can’t imagine a worse place to live. He’s one of the only brown kids in his school. And as a proud slacker, Ahmed doesn’t want to deal with expectations from his new teachers.

Ahmed surprises himself by actually reading the assigned books for his English class: Holes, Bridge to Terabithia, and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Shockingly, he doesn’t hate them. Ahmed also starts learning about his uncle, who died before Ahmed was born.

Getting bits and pieces of his family’s history might be the one upside of the move, even as his dad’s health hangs in the balance and the school bully refuses to leave him alone. Will Ahmed ever warm to Minnesota?

* A Chicago Public Library Kids Best Book of the Year * A BookPage Best Book of the Year * A Bank Street Best Book of the Year * Finalist for the Minnesota Book Award * 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063024908
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/18/2023
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	183,930
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Nina Hamza is a writer and physician who lives in Minnesota. She struggles with math, calculating time zones, and parking. She is the author of Ahmed Aziz's Epic Year. Her favorite part of being a writer has been meeting kids who learned something from her books that she hadn't even intended. Visit her online at ninahamza.com.

Editorial Reviews

"A strong debut destined to become a classic.” — School Library Journal (starred review)

“Fresh, funny and authentic. Ahmed Aziz’s Epic Year marks Hamza as a writer to watch." — BookPage (starred review)

“An affecting reflection on this boy’s tumultuous sixth-grade year.” — Booklist

“Compassionate and authentic. An emotionally perceptive book about grief, identity, and change.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Ahmed’s cheeky narration will fool no readers, as they witness the crumbling of his fake-it-’til-you-make-it wall of emotional self-defense.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

"Hamza writes with verve and a palpable fondness for her nuanced characters. Offers discerning lessons on reading, love, and adaptation." — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

07/26/2021

Moving away from everything you’ve ever known is difficult for anyone, but 12-year-old Ahmed Aziz, who is Indian American and Muslim, has an especially difficult time as he and his family relocate from Hawaii to his father’s hometown of Farthing, Minn. While the move allows Ahmed’s father, who has cirrhosis, to receive experimental treatment, Ahmed is less than enthused that his parents selected Minnesota over the other two locations offering the treatment—California and Japan. Immersed in a mostly white environment and forced to deal with bullies for the first time in his life, Ahmed copes by doing something he rarely does: reading. As Ahmed and his classmates dissect Louis Sachar’s Holes and other children’s novels in their accelerated language arts class, Ahmed slowly begins to develop a love for reading, with his deepening understanding of the characters and analyses helping him to navigate interpersonal issues and change in his own life. Hamza writes with verve and a palpable fondness for her nuanced characters in this quietly absorbing debut middle grade novel, which offers discerning lessons on reading, love, and adaptation. Ages 8–12. Agent: Alyssa Henkin, Trident Media Group. (June)

Publishers Weekly

An affecting reflection on this boy’s tumultuous sixth-grade year.

Booklist

Ahmed’s cheeky narration will fool no readers, as they witness the crumbling of his fake-it-’til-you-make-it wall of emotional self-defense.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Fresh, funny and authentic. Ahmed Aziz’s Epic Year marks Hamza as a writer to watch."

BookPage (starred review)

An affecting reflection on this boy’s tumultuous sixth-grade year.

Booklist

Ahmed’s cheeky narration will fool no readers, as they witness the crumbling of his fake-it-’til-you-make-it wall of emotional self-defense.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

★ 05/01/2021

Gr 3–7—Ahmed Aziz recalls the year when he was 12 and forced to move from Hawaii, the only home he'd ever known, to his father's hometown in Minnesota so that his father could receive lifesaving medical treatment for a genetic illness. Frustrated by his parents' choice to move to Minnesota and his lack of control over his life, Ahmed reluctantly embraces his new community and faces the looming legacy of his late uncle's life and death. When a neighborhood bully targets him, Ahmed must decide who it is he wants to be; it is an epic year indeed! In this moving and well-paced novel, Hamza sensitively offers a multidimensional portrayal of characters, young and old, and skillfully weaves in a narrative of the power of good teaching and literature. Young readers resistant to reading may relate to Ahmed's initial feelings about books, while fans of the works discussed within (including Louis Sachar's Holes and Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia) will be delighted. References to the family's Indian heritage and Muslim religion are seamlessly interspersed throughout, offering a warm and authentic depiction of an American Muslim family. VERDICT A strong debut destined to become a classic. Recommended for classrooms and libraries of all types, particularly where Zanib Mian's "Planet Omar" series flies off the shelves.—Mahasin A. Aleem, Oakland P.L., CA

School Library Journal

2021-04-27
Twelve-year-old Ahmed Aziz has never lived anywhere other than Hawaii, where everyone in his neighborhood knows everything about him.

When his Indian American Muslim family moves to his father’s hometown in Minnesota—one of three places in the world where his father can get the treatment he needs to recover from an inherited form of hepatitis C—Ahmed is anxious, heartbroken, and afraid. Things do not get off to a promising start. On Ahmed’s first day at his mostly White school, his neighbor Jack bullies him. Plus Ahmed is assigned to an accelerated section of language arts, a class taught by his father’s old friend Janet Gaardner—even though he hates to read. Ahmed’s homesickness only intensifies as he struggles to find a place among his peers and as his father’s illness worsens. However, he begins to find comfort in places he never expected, including in hearing memories of his uncle, who died at the age of 12 in the same hospital where Ahmed’s dad is now fighting for his life. Eventually Ahmed realizes that he is best loved and happiest when he is himself. This well-paced book tells a compassionate and authentic story about how families deal with intergenerational grief. The author seamlessly incorporates details of Ahmed’s heritage alongside his father’s Midwestern childhood, in the process accurately and unapologetically portraying Ahmed’s multifaceted identity.

An emotionally perceptive book about grief, identity, and change. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews