Staff Picks - LibGuides at Boulder Public Library

This book takes on identity, race, and Islamophobia in a post-9/11 world, showing the powerful and devastating impact of prejudice and first love. It is both heart-wrenching and heartwarming at the same time. I found the audio version of this book to be engaging and eye-opening.

Publisher's description:

It's a year after 9/11, an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who’s tired of being stereotyped. Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. She's tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments -- even the physical violence she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. She decided long ago not to trust anyone anymore, and she doesn't expect, or even try, to fit in anywhere or let anyone close enough to hurt her. Instead she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother. But then she meets Ocean James. He’s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin. It terrifies her—they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds—and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down.

Find A Very Large Expanse of Sea in our online catalog.

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