The Rising Reads

The Only Plane in the Sky

“This is a book you really need to hear instead of read. I was an adult with 2 children on 9/11 and I learned so much listening to this. This is more than just people recounting what happened to them on that dark day, it is a reenactment from key people told in chronological order. You get the where and learn exactly what they experienced. There is a full cast of people retelling their stories and their observations. It was heartbreaking but also eye-opening. Although I lived through this, I gained a better understanding of those affected by the events first hand. The people that were right there tell you their view and how the responded. Listening to this I was riveted. The scope of 9/11 is bigger than just one person, or a few people. It encompasses every American. This book does a fantastic job of putting you right there.”

Karen, That Book Store

Come From Away: Welcome to the Rock - a fully illustrated companion volume to the hit Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, featuring the book and lyrics for the first time in print, backstage stories and the real history behind the show's events, character design sketches, and songs that ended up on the cutting room floor.

The Tony Award-winning... Read more »

Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent history. Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of... Read more »

Ask anyone: September 11, 2001, was serene and lovely, a perfect day—until a plane struck the World Trade Center.

But right now it is a few days earlier, and four kids in different parts of the country are going about their lives. Sergio, who lives in Brooklyn, is struggling to come to terms with the absentee father he hates and the grandmother... Read more »

From award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a powerful novel set fifteen years after the 9/11 attacks in a classroom of students who cannot remember the event but live through the aftermath of its cultural shift.
When her fifth-grade teacher hints that a series of lessons about home and community will culminate with one big answer about... Read more »

At a time when we are all asking questions about identity, grief, and how to stand up for what is right, this book by the author of A Thousand Questions will hit home with young readers who love Hena Khan and Varian Johnson—or anyone struggling to understand recent U.S. history and how it still affects us today.   Yusuf Azeem has spent all his... Read more »

Other Words for Home

“The new words, tasting like America, on our lips." A beautifully-written story of a young Syrian girl's journey to Cincinnati and learning to live her everyday life of a school kid in America. Jude struggles to be brave in making new friends, in auditioning for the school play and in thinking of her brother and father back home.”

Ernio, River Bend Bookshop

Internment

“An emotionally charged, incredibly well written story of what it would be like if internment camps were brought back for this nation's Muslim citizens. Beautifully narrated, Internment is gripping and powerful, this is a must-listen for all ages.”

Mary, Anderson's Bookshop

Told in alternating narratives that bridge centuries, the latest novel from New York Times bestselling author Samira Ahmed traces the lives of two young women fighting to write their own stories and escape the pressure of cultural expectations in worlds too long defined by men. It’s August in Paris and 17-year-old Khayyam Maquet—American,... Read more »

Darius the Great Is Not Okay

“Darius is struggling. He doesn't fit in at school. He has trouble making friends. He's bullied. And to top that off, he's plagued by horribly negative thoughts including the very painful feeling that his father doesn't like him and wishes to replace him with his younger sister. Darius, indeed, is not okay. Everything changes when Darius meets Sohrab, while visiting relatives in Iran. Sohrab is generous and caring, helping Darius to see many things and even himself in a new light. I was truly moved to tears by this incredibly rare depiction of a tender and loving friendship between two adolescent male teens. An honest and accessible read for those wanting to understand teens struggling with clinically diagnosed depression.”

Zinna, A Great Good Place for Books

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda goes to Italy in Arvin Ahmadi's newest incisive look at identity and what it means to find yourself by running away.

Eighteen-year-old Amir Azadi always knew coming out to his Muslim family would be messy--he just didn't think it would end in an airport interrogation room. But when faced with a failed... Read more »

The Bad Muslim Discount

“I loved The Bad Muslim Discount so much I read the acknowledgements just so it wouldn’t end — and they were great, too! This is an insightful and funny novel about faith, family, and being a Muslim American today. Masood offers us a sharp perspective, a seamless style, and unforgettable characters, leaving the reader enriched for the experience.”

Claire Benedict, Bear Pond Books

An urgent manifesto and a dramatic memoir of awakening, this is the story of revolutionary love.

Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize • “In a world stricken with fear and turmoil, Valarie Kaur shows us how to summon our deepest wisdom.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love
 
How do we love in a time of rage? How do we fix a broken... Read more »

In this New York Times Editors’ Choice, the brilliant founder of MuslimGirl.com shares her harrowing and candid account of what it’s like to be a young Muslim woman in the wake of 9/11, during the never-ending war on terror, and through the Trump era of casual racism.

At nine years old, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh watched from her home in New Jersey as... Read more »