Then something clicked in his mind: Maybe that’s what living is-recognizing the marvels and oddities around you.įrom that day, he vowed to record the marvels he knew to be true and the oddities he wished weren’t.Īdam, being Adam, found himself marveling more than ruminating on the weird bits of existing. He stood there thinking about this grand title for a long moment. Once he got close, he was rewarded with the name of the manuscript that housed this simple tree sketch: The Marvels of Creation and the Oddities of Existence.

(When he thinks about it now, his guess is thus: Trees were kind of missing in the landscape he found himself in at the time, and so he was hungry for them.) He didn’t know why this tree caused him to stride forward as if magnetized. It wasn’t particularly striking or artistic. ON THE MORNING OF SATURDAY, March 14, fourteen-year-old Adam Chen went to the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha.Ī thirteenth-century drawing of a tree caught his gaze.

Intent on keeping the memory of his mom alive for his little sister.Īdam’s also intent on keeping his diagnosis a secret from his grieving father.Īlone, Adam and Zayneb are playing roles for others, keeping their real thoughts locked away in their journals. Since he got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in November, Adam’s stopped going to classes, intent, instead, on perfecting the making of things. When she gets suspended for confronting her teacher, and he begins investigating her activist friends, Zayneb heads to her aunt’s house in Doha, Qatar, for an early start to spring break.įueled by the guilt of getting her friends in trouble, she resolves to try out a newer, “nicer” version of herself in a place where no one knows her. Like Zayneb’s teacher, who won’t stop reminding the class how “bad” Muslims are.īut Zayneb, the only Muslim in class, isn’t bad. Like the fact that there are hateful people in the world. Like the perfect fries Adam and his mom used to make together.Īn oddity: whatever gives you pause. Like potatoes-because they make French fries happen. Ali comes an unforgettable romance that is The Sun Is Also a Star meets Anna and the French Kiss, following two Muslim teens who meet during a spring break trip.Ī marvel: something you find amazing.

“Heartfelt and powerful.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)įrom William C. “The bighearted, wildly charming, painfully real love story I’ve been waiting for.” -Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Simon vs.

Love from a to z reviews