Dalia Ramahi

Kanzi, the young immigrant protagonist of The Arabic Quilt, has come to feel welcome in her American school-until books about immigrants and kids of color are banned.

When fourteen-year-old Talibah and her ten-year-old brother, Adom, visit modern-day Egypt with their historian-father, they become involved in a mystery surrounding Hatshepsut, a woman pharoah, and Senenmut, architect of her mortuary tomb, as well as their own deceased mother.

Upon learning that the books with kids who look like her have been banned by her school district, Kanzi descends into fear and helplessness. But her classmates support her, and together-with their teacher's help-they hatch a plan to hold a bake sale and use the proceeds to buy diverse books to donate to libraries.

"Continuing this propulsive middle grade nonfiction series, a young woman once persecuted by the Taliban shares her journey to becoming a community activist. As a girl and as part of an ethnic minority in Afghanistan, Freshta Tori Jan was persecuted relentlessly. Her family faced kidnappings and daily murder attempts on the bus, on the way to school, in the workplace, and beyond. Freshta's school was shut down by the Taliban, and many of her friends...