Salma, who immigrated to Canada from Syria with her family, is excited about becoming a big sister, and wants to be a good one. She doubts there is a book on the topic that includes an immigrant family like theirs, however, so she sets off to write one.
She does research, talks with friends about their families, and thinks about her own—family that includes her Khalou (maternal uncle) Dawood, who has been in Canada for longer. She doesn’t understand the tension between him and her mother, however. It turns out that her mother doesn’t like the fact that he’s married to another man. The tension between her mother and uncle confuse her; how will she learn to be a good sibling if they’re not good siblings?
Dawood tries to explain that being a good person doesn’t mean not making mistakes, but rather knowing when to fix them. Salma talks with her mother, who explains that she loves Dawood, but feels “torn between loving him and all the values we grew up with.” With Salma’s encouragement, however, her mother takes some first steps towards healing the rift between them.
My only quibble is that the book says that Salma’s family is “unique” in coming to a new country for a better life, living in a place foreign to them, and making a home by mixing their Syrian heritage with their Canadian present. While the specific details of their particular family story may be unique, there are in fact many Syrian Canadian families with an overall arc like that. It might have been better to emphasize to Syrian Canadian readers that they’re not as alone as they might think and that their unique story is really part of a larger story about the their immigrant community. Overall, though, this recommended chapter book looks thoughtfully at family change and at the interplay of homophobia and cultural values. The setting of such themes within an immigrant family is rare and needed.
