Saeed, Aisha, Huda Al-Marashi, Jamilah Thompkins Bigelow, and S.K. Ali. Grounded: A Novel. Amulet, 05/2023. 272pp. Fiction. GRADES 4 – 7. $18.99. 978-1-4197-6175-1. ADDITIONAL.
Four kids who couldn’t be more different are thrown together when a thunderstorm grounds their families’ flights. True, they are all twelve and Muslim, but their racial and ethnic backgrounds are diverse, as are their personality types. Find out what happens when an animal rights activist, budding social media influencer, aspiring rapper, anxious martial artist, and four-year-old force of nature are trapped in an airport, united in their desire to avoid their parents and to find a lost pet. Chapters alternate among the perspectives of Nora, Hanna, Feek, and Sami, with each character penned by a different author. The kids’ differences push their evolution, and the adventure ricochets along, realistically following the attention span of four distracted tweens and one toddler. Predictable mayhem ensues and the good-natured tomfoolery unrolls like the plot of a Saturday morning cartoon. What gets between the reader and the fun is overly expository prose. The characters narrate what’s happening, why it’s happening, and how they feel about it. This, combined with a disjointed plot, bogs down the narrative.
Melissa McAvoy—Retired