Download PDF Internment Samira Ahmed Books

Product details Hardcover 400 pages Publisher Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (March 19, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 0316522694

Internment Samira Ahmed Books Reviews

• I had very high hopes for this book. After reading the summary I was filled with anticipation, is it going to be like the holocaust? Guantanamo? Nope. This book had such potential to be something really great. This is something that could become a real thing in our future. The execution however left much to be desired. I don't believe the author did any sort of research for a book like this. She has no basic knowledge of how any sort of camp or prison works or just chose to ignore anything practical. By far the one thing that I think just makes the whole story crap is that you wrote a 17-year-old starting a revolution inside the camp and stopping the Muslim internment. I think it was a poor choice to write a book about such an important topic and then make it about a girl who is obsessed with her boyfriend.
• This book begins during a horrific time for Muslims in the U.S. A president has been elected who tweets his hatred of Muslims almost daily. Fake news abounds and refugees are being called rapists and criminals. The Secretary of War is an Islamophobe – and yes, that’s a cabinet seat we haven’t seen for a while in real life. It has a slightly different ring to it than Secretary of the Army or Secretary of Defense. Nazis have marched on DC and books are burning. There is so much wrong with the country and one of the crushing things is that so many people encouraged or allowed all of this.
  
  Layla Amin and her family have watched things rapidly change around them. Muslims, much like the Jewish people in 1930s Germany, have begun to see their rights and freedoms stripped away one at a time. Layla just wants a normal life where she can be with her boyfriend without worrying about curfews and the unraveling of her world. Layla and her parents don’t see things the same way. They want to see the good in people. They still believe that they will be okay if they don’t make waves. They have hope and prayers, but Layla wants more than that to hold onto as more things are ripped away from them.
  
  Samira Ahmed has crafted a story that is terrifying in its possibilities. Many of the issues in the book seem to have been lifted straight from our current newspapers. The story is all too realistic. It’s set just a bit in the future and it could certainly inspire some fear and heartache in readers. While there is hatred, bigotry, and violence against Muslims, there is also a lot of hope. Her parents are an excellent example of that and while the young people are frustrated by hope without action, they too have hope. One of the young people says that holding onto hope is hard work. This is quickly followed by a Rogue One quote, “Rebellions are built on hope.” There are people of all ages who step up at times, but the majority of the heavy lifting in this book is done by the young people. It’s a powerful testament to the strength and courage of young people. I loved that aspect of the story. Youth are often underestimated. Here the youth don’t wait for leaders, they become leaders.
  
  By taking them to an internment camp, Layla feels that the government has taken her voice and choice. Through the book, Layla discovers that this may not be entirely correct. As she meets other frustrated people, she learns and grows and finds her own way of being in this restrictive place. She also discovers the power of unity and finds ways to be heard.
  
  This is partially a story of survival. It offers a glimpse into what some people are willing to do to survive. What people are willing to give up to survive can be astounding and not always in good ways. Ahmed also shows us what some people are willing to do for others.
  
  This book is a warning, a message of hope, and a call to action. The cap on the cover says Resist and so does the entire book.
• I had no naive ideas that this book would not be a hard read. I knew what I was getting into, literally a quarter of my bookcases are full of non-fiction or historical fictions that take place during the Holocaust or WWI/WWII. Even then I had to close the book sometimes because it all seemed too real.
  
  Layla, her parents, and thousands of other Muslims are sent to an internment camp called Mobius, the fact that it was close to the Japanese internment camp Manzanar was not lost on me either. The cause of such a drastic move? Islamophia. Does it sound familiar? This book is placed in what seems like a few years from now, in this presidency, under this current political climate and that made this book all the more urgent.
  
  The scenes that take place in the book are appalling not because they are violent, but because we see actions like this committed every day. A hijab being ripped off a woman's head, a man being shot just because he is Muslim, a woman being silenced because she has no right to speak. How did they end up here? The census, that one that keeps track of our religions, ages, nationalities, and livelihoods that we report to the government every now and then. That flimsy piece of paper, if you checked Islam you are at Mobius.
  
  The president has declared Muslims an enemy of the state, so they rounded them up just like they did to Japanese-Americans in the past. Layla had learned of this history in school and it was her only reference to what was happening to her, it made her scared and at times selfish but determined. She refused to live the rest of her life there. So she decided to make a start much like Sophie Scholl did during the time of Nazi propaganda. This was scary because let's remember that Sophie was executed. She knew it was a risk but to be honest she could have died just as easy by just being within those gates, anyone who made false moves were taken away never to be seen again.
  
  I won't ruin the story by elaborating on the allies that she finds or those that learn of her plans and join her in the revolution, because that is honestly the best part of the story. The teenagers in this book used their place of "Privilege" as minors to get ahead. They couldn't be treated like the others, they couldn't just simply be disappeared without a trace. So they stood tall and spoke for those who couldn't. That is the point of the book. It is to educate the younger generation, allow them space to reflect, and show them that just because their young does not mean they are powerless. A small voice is better than no voice and this book does its best to bring that home.
  
  Despite all its harsh reminders, it also gives us a sense of hope. Not everyone in the country agrees with what is going on, kind of like now. Those people fought for them when they learned of the injustices, even some that allowed it to happen realized it was a big mistake and joined the cause. It is the kind of situation where you won't really know how to react until it's happening and I am glad the book provides a space for both.
  
  Rating 5/5 ❤❤❤❤❤
  
  My rating is a #unpopular opinion with many readers of this book, I will give some examples of the complaints below and my reasoning behind why it shouldn't matter. You can make your decision on this and read it for yourself as we all know books are perceived differently by different readers.
  
  The book is too obvious, it doesn't give us space to make our own conclusions said by most people over the age of 21- The book wasn't made for them, it was made for younger readers who need books that tell a compelling story quickly and with all the consequences and backstory because attention spans for reading these days is short. I mean come on, I get annoyed when a commercial interrupts my anything and its only 30 seconds.
  
  Layla is selfish it looks like all she wants is her boyfriend- Her mom and dad are in the camp with her, so the only person on the outside she can really want is her boyfriend, but that scene where she begs to call him is not about David. It's about everyone's loved ones outside those gates. Everyone has to beg for a phone call, get it approved, and still be careful because they are being listened to. For Layla that was David but for others, that was a husband, a son, or a daughter.
  
  Layla is too informed about previous internment camps in history- I learned about the Holocaust and Japanese internment camps when I was in tenth grade, two years younger than Layla, and was taught by an amazing student teacher, who really ingrained in us the importance of studying situations like this and learning from them. I have continued to educate myself and read about those moments in history ever since then. So yes, she could have been that educated about the topic at 17.
  
  David is annoying- Indeed he is, I honestly am still trying to comprehend if he could have been written in a different way where he didn't seem so clueless and unaware of what was going on around him. I know he was trying his best and did play a role in it but he just seemed out of place a bit.
  
  The Director of the Internment camp is cartoonish- yes he is, but what matters is not his reactions but his power. Time and time through the book he shows that he can get away with literally anything. He gives an air of desperation to Layla's resistance. The fact that his actions have no consequences is what matters. Because it means that at Mobius there were no respites, no way out, no one to protect them. They were no one. He got angry like a child sometimes and turned blue in the face because of her actions, but let's not pretend that there weren't people in internment camps who died just because a guard was in a bad mood.
  
  The book was too raw, too crass it felt like it was throwing its beliefs at me- It is raw at times and in your face but if you were inside the internment camp it would be in your face, you would be in the middle of the violence, you would feel the oppression, this book is not about beliefs its about right and wrong. The book makes you feel like you are there like there is no place to go. That is the point, they had nowhere to go.
  
  Now that you have been informed about the chief complaints of the book, I hope that you give it a chance and make your own opinion on the matter. This is such an important book for young adults to have a discussion about these days, and for adults to read and share with others.
• It IS happening. In summer 2018 children of asylum seeking parents were taken from their parents and put into detention camps. Asylum seeking families are also held together in socalled "family detention prisons by ICE. Although these are predominanty Christian, religious hatred is rising. In October 11 worshippers were murdered at a synagogue. In France hate crimes against Jews happen almost daily. 51 worshippers were murdered in mid March 2019 at a mosque in New Zealand.
  Although Muslims have not been interned, they face great prejudice. When the mosque shooting happened the President did the best he could never to mention that the victims were Muslims.
  This book is not dystopian. Young people and adults need to read it and do what we can to erase bigotry from our hearts AND our government.
  The way we are safe and free is by standing up for each other.