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In the Key of Nira Ghani
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By Natasha Deen
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Nira Ghani has always dreamed of becoming a musician. Her Guyanese parents, however, have big plans for her to become a scientist or doctor. Nira's grandmother and her best friend, Emily, are the only people who seem to truly understand her desire to establish an identity outside of the one imposed on Nira by her parents. When auditions for jazz band are announced, Nira realizes it's now or never to convince her parents that she deserves a chance to pursue her passion.
As if fighting with her parents weren't bad enough, Nira finds herself navigating a new friendship dynamic when her crush, Noah, and notorious mean-girl, McKenzie "Mac," take a sudden interest in her and Emily, inserting themselves into the fold. So, too, does Nira's much cooler (and very competitive) cousin Farah. Is she trying to wiggle her way into the new group to get closer to Noah? Is McKenzie trying to steal Emily's attention away from her? As Farah and Noah grow closer and Emily begins to pull away, Nira's trusted trumpet "George" remains her constant, offering her an escape from family and school drama.
But it isn't until Nira takes a step back that she realizes she's not the only one struggling to find her place in the world. As painful truths about her family are revealed, Nira learns to accept people for who they are and to open herself in ways she never thought possible.
A relatable and timely contemporary, coming-of age story, In the Key of Nira Ghani explores the social and cultural struggles of a teen in an immigrant household.
Amy Mathers Award Winner
MYRCA Award Nominee
R. Ross Arnett Award Nominee
American Library Association YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers
Red Maple Award Nominee
Red Maple Honour Book
Barnes & Noble’s Top 25 Most Anticipated Own Voices Novels
Chapters-Indigo Most Anticipated Teen Books
Junior Library Guild Selection
CCBC Best Pick for Kids & Teens
CCBC Red Leaf Literature
OLA White Pine Teen Committee Summer Reading List
Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
ISOLATION IS AN ORGANIC COMPOUND
The cow’s eyeball floats in the formaldehyde. It’s disembodied, a part cut off from the whole, just like me, but there’s a difference between me and the cloudy orb. It stares out at the kids as though it knows the secret the rest of us are dying to find out.
McKenzie catches me looking at the jar. “Are you offended?”
“What?”
“We killed a cow. Are you mad at us or something? Aren’t they sacred to your people or whatever?”
“I’m not Hindi,” I tell her for what must be the millionth time.
“It’s pronounced ‘offended.’” She slows down the last word and says it louder, like I’m both illiterate and deaf. Smiles, then glowers when I don’t smile back. “No one’s trying to hurt your feelings. We just like burgers.”
And right there is the reason that when I graduate high school, I’m taking off to a university that’s light-years away from this town. And once I get to that faraway place, I’m disowning my parents for moving us to a neighborhood where I’m the only brown girl in the entire school and have to put up with idiots like McKenzie King. I go back to my staring contest with the eyeball.
“Why?” McKenzie chews on her gum, blows a blue bubble until it pops.
“Why what?”
“Why are cows sacred to your people?”
“They’re not—” Crap. She has me on a technicality. I’m not Hindu, but some of my people are. I sigh. “My grandmother—who, unlike me, is Hindu—says the cow represents growth, life, and nonviolence. That’s why it’s sacred.”
“But you’re, like, Indian.”
“No, I’m Guyanese.” Judging from the look on her face, I’ve just fried her brain cell. Cell. Singular.
“Huh? But you’re Indian.”
“I’m from Guyana. So, yeah, I’m Guyanese Indian. West Indian. It’s a different thing than—”
Her face lights up. “No kidding? Ghana? I didn’t know you were African.”
The next time my parents ask me why my science marks aren’t higher, I’m going to tell them it’s because of McKenzie. Because if I were any smarter in physics, bio, or chemistry, I’d make a laser gun and vaporize the curly hair right off her pink scalp.
The bell rings, and I breathe out the tightness in my chest. For the next forty minutes, it’s physics and the origin of the universe, and I’m craving every second of it. Physics has to have the answer because the other sciences are letting me down.
Biology says the visual system of humans is fine-tuned and able to detect minute variations in color and surface edges. So why don’t the kids at school see me? Even McKenzie, who finds a way to get in my face every day, wouldn’t notice if I disappeared. If the police came and questioned her about a missing brown girl, she’d say, “Brown? Like Indian? That reminds me, I want a burger.”
The door opens, and the teacher comes in, but it’s not Mr. Tamagotchi. It’s a sub. “Sit down, everyone. Let’s take attendance and get started.” She flips through Mr. Tamagotchi’s agenda and laughs. “Oh, an overview of string theory. I bet he’s not talking about shoe strings or cheese strings.”
No one laughs at her joke. For a second, I feel a rush of sympathy. This school is full of kids who’ve been together since pre-K. They’re one collective brain, with acne and a BO problem. I’ve been at the school since my family moved to the neighborhood two years ago, and I’m still the one who’s alone in class when the teacher asks us to pair up or make groups.
“Bye-bye Nira Gee-Hani?”
The class titters.
“It’s pronounced Bee-Bee,” I say, glad my dark skin hides the flush of pink creeping up my cheeks. “And it’s Gah-nee. Bibi Nira Ghani. But I’m just Nira.” I keep asking the school to use Nira instead of Bibi on the class lists. So far, my request is as invisible as I am.
“Okay, thanks.” She moves to the next name on her list.
“Do you have any sisters, Bibi?” The question comes from one of McKenzie’s buddies.
“No. Only child.”
“Well, if you ever do,” she says, “you should tell your parents to name them Cici and Didi.”
McKenzie laughs. “They could go down the alphabet. Until they get to Zizi.”
Her friend can’t contain herself. “OMG. Can you imagine? Pee-Pee!”
“Double OMG, if it was Pee-Pee and a boy?”
In forty years, when I pick a senior citizen home for my parents—and I will because no way are those crazies living with me (and I don’t care what Guyanese culture says about respecting your elders)—I’m picking the crappiest home out there. And when my parents ask why, I’m going to hand these moments out like bitter candy.
“Nira,” says McKenzie, “we’re just joking.”
It’s not an apology. It’s what it always is, McKenzie being insensitive and justifying it by suggesting I don’t know how to take a joke.
“Okay,” the sub says when she’s finished with attendance. “Give me a second to read over your teacher’s notes.”
“Hey, Nira,” says McKenzie.
I hide my face behind my book.
“Nira, hey, Nira.” She won’t take the hint.
“What?”
“Did you ever ride elephants when you lived in Africa?”
I go back to reading.
“Sorry,” says the teacher. “I may have missed a student. Who’s Nira?”
Seriously. When I talk, does the air from my lungs lack the necessary force and pressure to reach people’s ears? “Me.”
She frowns. “Aren’t you Bye-Bye?”
“I’m thinking of going bye-bye,” I mutter, wishing someone near me would hear and get the joke and smile my way. But when I look up, McKenzie’s gaze is on me, and there’s no smile, just an unreadable expression on her face.
“Your teacher says I’m not to call on you if there’s discussion or questions.” Her frown deepens. “Why is that?”
“Because she always knows the answer,” says McKenzie. “And he wants the rest of us to”—she takes a breath and mimics his nasal pitch—“‘try and put in an effort. Come on, people, give Nira’s vocal cords a rest.’”
McKenzie does a great impression. She even screws up her face the way Mr. Tamagotchi does when he thinks we’re not trying to reach our potential.
“Oh, uh—” says the sub.
“It’s not fair.” McKenzie leans back. “Real life is all about collaborative problem-solving.”
Unbelievable. Now she decides to grow a second brain cell.
“If she knows the answers, let her talk. Her people have been oppressed enough. She has a voice, right? Let her use it.”
God, I hate my life.
My usual table’s waiting when I get to the cafeteria. At the back, in the corner. The other two walls are floor-to-ceiling windows, but only the popular kids get to sit in the sun.
Emily waits for me at the corner table. She’s blond and blue-eyed with freckles, but she also has a scar from surgery on a cleft lip and thirty extra pounds from her love affair with chocolate bars. She waves when she sees me and points to the chair next to her.
I love her for that. I’m irritated with her for that. Waving and pointing. Like somehow the seats at that table are restricted access, instead of perpetually empty. I sit beside her but don’t open my lunch bag. The smell of tuna wafts from it. I glance over at the popular tables, where they’re eating pita pockets stuffed with deli meat, peppers, lettuce, and cheese. It looks so good; I can almost taste it.
McKenzie’s there. Watching. She’s always surveilling us. It’s like she’s part of the nerd police, the number-one detective of the uncool squad. I turn away so I don’t have to see her and her perfect lunch.
I open my bag and peer inside. Remind myself I’m lucky to have food when there are probably starving children down the street. But the sandwich squishes in my mouth. Mom hasn’t figured out the correct ratio of mayo to tuna. It’s either dry enough to use as a desiccant or so wet, I think it could bring the fish back to life. I’ve tried to tell her I can make my lunch, but she’s got this stupid hang-up about being a working mom. Like making my lunch makes up for not being there for parent-teacher meetings and assemblies, or baking me brownies after school.
Emily tips her cloth bag upside down, and four chocolate bars roll out. “It’s been a multichocolate bar kind of morning.”
“Four? What happened?”
“Rope climbing. This body’s meant for a lot of things, but holding on to a piece of rope and climbing for the ceiling isn’t one of them.”
Oh, man. If she had to do it for gym, then so will I. Rope climbing. I barely have the upper body strength to throw off my bed covers.
“Did you see?”
There’s the other reason Emily’s at this table instead of with the pretty people. Her habit of talking in half sentences. It’s like she’s constantly looking for her psychic twin, the one who can finish her thoughts by reading her mind. “See what?”
“The band poster. They’re doing auditions for jazz band.”
The sudden image flashes through my brain. Me, under the pink and yellow lights, eyes closed, wailing a solo on a shiny trumpet. Reality raises the houselights. My parents will never let me try out. “Oh, cool.”
“You should audition. You’re amazing. Every time you play, I think of Neil Armstrong.”
“You mean Louis Armstrong. He was the trumpet player. Neil was the astronaut.”
“That’s who I mean. You make me think of moonlight and defying gravity.”
I may have only one friend in the world, but she’s awesome enough to count for five. I tried to tell her that once, and she said, “Is that a joke about my weight?”
Which made me want to die until she laughed and said, “It’s so easy to screw with you.”
“You should try out.” She shoves the purple paper at me.
It’s a flyer advertising the auditions. Black musical notes border the edge, and in the middle are silhouettes of players holding guitars and saxes. My heart goes liquid at the thought of being one of those figures.
“You’d nail it like a hammer from the heavens.”
I love playing trumpet, but I’ve never had formal training, never been tested by the Royal Conservatory. “It’s a hobby.” I get enough rejection in regular life. My ego’s fine with that. But I’m sure it’ll pack its bags and walk out if I set it up for extracurricular rejection by trying to compete with serious musicians.
“If I could play something, I’d try out.” Her eyes go dreamy. The candy droops from her mouth and a line of caramel forms a soft U.
“You should still do it. Maybe there’s room for a cymbal player or someone who can play a rain stick.”
“I don’t know. How will the audience see me if I’m hidden behind a rain stick?”
I don’t understand why she’s not at a table by the windows. She’s funny and not in an ego-beating way. Emily likes her curves. She likes them so much, she doesn’t mind laughing with them. With them, not at them.
My fingers find the tufts of hair growing on my jawline. I wish I liked my swarthy, dark face enough to joke about it. “Maybe we can drench you with hydrogen peroxide and luminol.” My fingers fall away from my face. “You’d glow like a firework.”
“We should do that for you, too. Then you can do an interpretive dance while I play.” She mimes shaking a rain stick and starts laughing, and her face lights up with joy.
I catch everyone looking our way and realize we’re too loud. Plus, Emily’s miming could look like she’s doing something a lot dirtier than shaking a stick. Before I can shush her or stop her movements, she elbows me and grunts. I follow the line of her gaze.
Noah.
When it comes to me and dealing with the rest of the kids, we’re like positively charged magnets. We’re the same, and you’d think that would bring us together. But magnets of the same charge repel each other. Not Noah. His differentness isn’t a positively or negatively charged magnet. It’s a gravitational pull, and it keeps everyone in his orbit.
I’m probably the only straight girl in school who doesn’t lust after him. Not because I don’t think he’s attractive. He’s all dark curly hair (please, can I touch it?), intense brown eyes (did you just look into my soul?), and great body (hold it against me). I’m just smart enough to know when someone’s not just out of my league, but out of my universe, too.
“I heard he’s trying out for jazz band.”
Of course, he is.
“The guitar.”
Of course, he is.
“But he might be adding sax, this time.”
Shocker. Noah lives the life of legends and dreams. His dad not only gives him anything he wants, but he also takes Noah out of school for a week at a time. They go off and have adventures. Then Noah returns, carrying stories on his back, and wearing souvenirs on his arms and chest. Not the touristy kind. The other kind. The kind of shirts and accessories you get when you don’t just immerse yourself in a culture, but you become the culture itself.
He’s been gone for a few days. Today, he’s wearing a graphic tee, worn jeans. The magical object in question is a leather band around his wrist. McKenzie and her crew are already rushing to him, touching the band, their fingers playing against his skin.
What is it about his different that makes it better than my different? Part of it is what he wears. Clothes talk. They have a conversation with people before you ever open your mouth. It’s shorthand, but it’s a layered, exotic language. They tell everyone about your hopes and dreams, how you see the world, and what you think of yourself. The kids at school, their clothes say they belong, that everything is theirs. My clothes don’t say anything. They just apologize for my existence.
When the bell rings, I head to gym. It’s my least favorite class, but I like the egalitarianism of the red sweats and white cotton shirts. If aliens landed and looked at us, no one could tell I’m poor. No one could see I don’t belong. I finish dressing, lace my sneakers, and head into the gym. And I hold the fantasy of being connected as I walk through the doors. Clasp the daydream close until I’m forced to open my mouth and break the spell.
CHAPTER TWO
BAGGAGE COMES WITH REINFORCED HANDLES
Calypso music booms at me as I enter the house, so loud no one can hear when I yell, “Hello? Who’s home?” The smell of onion and garlic takes me into the kitchen where I find my mom and grandmother cooking dinner. Grandma’s seated at the table, her arthritic fingers prying open pea shells. Mom stands in front of the stove, a worn apron tied tight around her nursing scrubs. Oil sizzles on the tawa while a plate of cooked roti sits beside her. Candles of differing colors and competing scents cast light and shadow on the counter, the stove, the table. The window’s wide open, straining at its hinges. “What are we doing? Having a séance?” I blow out some of the candles.
“Nira! The smell—”
“Three candles aren’t going to do anything with the smell of curry in the house. We have to talk.” I shut off the music and sit next to Grandma. Since Mom’s attention is on the stove, I slip my grandmother a chocolate bar. Milk chocolate, her favorite.
She gives me a warm smile as she slides it in the folds of her sari and goes back to shelling peas.
“Something happened at school?” Mom grasps the half-baked roti between her fingers and flips the dough to its uncooked side. “Is it your grades?”
“No.” Not true. Something seismic happened at school. I decided to try out for jazz band. It happened when I was clinging to the rope, wishing I’d been gifted with upper body strength. Maybe it was the oxygen deprivation, maybe it was the humiliation of knowing everyone was staring and judging. Doesn’t matter. What does matter is jazz band. I’m good with a trumpet. Great with it. The sound of a trumpet is the sound of my soul. Every time I play, it’s like I’m communing with the molecules and atoms that make me, me. Maybe, if I play long enough, loud enough, good enough, my DNA will rearrange itself, and I’ll figure out how to be smart, popular, and worthy.
Getting into band might be a way to get all that and more. The only downside is that I need Mom and Dad’s permission. I have a better chance of scaling Mount Everest in a bikini and flip-flops.
“What happened at school?” She flips the roti in the air, catches and claps it, then throws it in the air again. Specks of flour and bread fly and settle on the counter. Her dark eyes hold my gaze. They see something is going on inside of me. “You need tea?”
Tea is my mom’s answer to everything. The world could be invaded by zombies, and my mom would say, “You need tea?” And if those zombies cracked open my skull and ate half my brain, she would pat my hand and say, “Yes, tea with extra milk and sugar.” Because dairy and sweetness solve life’s problems. Then she would say, “I expect your marks to stay the same.” Because that’s my family’s way. Whether you lose half your brain to a zombie or not, your grades must never suffer.
“I don’t need tea.”
She jerks her chin at the kettle and says to Grandma, “Put it to boil.”
“Old woman, I don’t need tea.”
Grandma rises.
“I don’t need—” Why am I fighting this? “Just a small cup.”
“What happened?” Mom’s concentration is back on the stove. “Wash your hands and help me.”
Because you can’t just talk in my house. You talk and work. “What am I supposed to do?”
Her brows pull together. “Find something.”
There’s a sink of dirty dishes. Over the rush of the water filling the sink, I watch the soap bubbles form a white castle. “I was wondering if maybe we could go shopping this weekend.”
“You need something for school?”
“Kind of.” I shut off the taps. The bubbles spill over the sides of the plates. I have to be subtle about this. My parents can see a frontal attack coming from miles away. I need a soft volley over their front lines. Clothes are the way to do it. If she says yes to the request, then I know she’s in a good mood, and I can go for the Big Ask.
“I’d like a new pair of jeans. Maybe a shirt.” As soon as it’s out of my mouth, I regret it. Not because it wasn’t a good idea. But because now that I’ve asked, I want them so badly, I can smell the new clothes, feel the smooth slip of the size sticker on the denim.
One outfit, but if I pair the jeans with other stuff, and wear the shirt underneath, it could take my bargain basement clothes to the main floor. Maybe. All I know is having at least one outfit that has the right graphic and brand name would be like having a magical shield. Maybe if I look more like the other kids, they’ll pay attention. Imagine if I wore the outfit to the jazz audition. Me, a trumpet, and the right clothes? It would rearrange the stars and recombine my DNA.
“You don’t need more clothes.”
Mom’s words rip me from my daydream. “Yes, I do.”
“Your closet’s full—”
“Of clearance shirts from stores that are so inconsequential, they don’t even have a brand.”
My mother shoots a dark smile at her mother-in-law. “Inconsequential. And I thought your making her learn a word a day from the dictionary wouldn’t pay off.”
Grandma shrugs and keeps shelling the peas.
“You’re making fun of me.”
“You’re making fun of yourself. You don’t need clothes.” She drops the roti on the plate and faces me. A thin film of sweat covers her forehead and chin. “And the money your father and I work for to buy your clothes isn’t inconsequential, either.”
“Why is it so bad to get a new outfit?”
Grandma rises and moves to the kettle as it boils.
“Why can’t I have clothes that look like everyone else’s?”
“Because it’s a waste of money.” Mom slaps a roll of dough on the counter. “Hundred-dollar jeans that you won’t even want next year—”
“Yes, I will!”
“And what will they be worth the day after you buy them? Twenty dollars.”
“I’m a good daughter.” My face feels hotter than the stove, and I’m holding my breath so I don’t scream. I haven’t forgotten about the audition, and I can’t risk getting her so mad she says no, but I can’t let this go. “Do you know how many parents would kill to have a kid like me? They would love to get me stuff in return for my high marks, helping around the house—”
“Get them to buy you the jeans.”
“I do chores—you think the rest of the kids in my class have to do chores?”
“We pay you an allowance.”
“Big deal. The other kids get more money, and they do nothing!”
She turns back to the stove. “When they’re forty, they’ll still be living with their mother because they can’t care for themselves.”
I love how she says it without a hint of irony that Dad’s mother lives here. Sure, it’s my parents’ house, but still, she’s sharing a roof with her husband’s mom. From the corner of my eye, I see Grandma dump two teaspoons of sugar in the cup. Her hand hovers over the sugar bowl.
“All I’m asking for is one outfit.” The words are spoken through clenched teeth. My heart is beating so hard I hear it in my ears.
Grandma dumps another teaspoon of sugar in my cup and adds more milk.
“That costs as much as a dinner out. The conversation is over. That money is for your university. That’s more important than jeans. We didn’t bring you to Canada so you could put on makeup and tight jeans. You’re here for the opportunities.”
I want to barf. I’m so sick of hearing this lecture.
“Canada is safe—you think it’s safe for you back in Guyana? You think the cops will protect you?”
“Stop.” I put up my hand. “Stop before you tell me—again—how they’re so corrupt you were able to buy your way out of speeding tickets.”
“They’re not all corrupt, but it’s not safe like it is here. There aren’t oppor—” Mom must see my eyes glazing over, because she stops mid-rant. “When you become a doctor, you can buy all the clothes you want. You can be a real star gyal.”
Guyanese for a girl who’s so good-looking, she can be an actress. My mother makes it sound like an insult. The fact I’m more likely to be cast as Quasimodo than Esmeralda adds a layer of sarcasm and cruelty to her barb.
“That’s a million years away.” My anger shoves the audition aside. I can be like my father sometimes. So caught up in the fight, I forget about the war. I feel his likeness, pounding around me, the shadow of him, warning me to shut up, but I can’t.
Grandma looks my way; her dark eyes take in my face. Another teaspoon of sugar falls into my cup. If I don’t have a brain aneurysm because of my mother, the tea is going to send me into a diabetic coma. On the bright side, either way, it’ll get me out of school.
“What’s a hundred dollars—and it wouldn’t even be that much.” It’ll be more like ninety-eight, but still, that’s under a hundred, right?
“Compound interest,” says my mother.
“Huh?”
“Compound—What are they teaching you in school?”
Apparently not Negotiating with Stubborn Mothers 101.
“A hundred dollars invested over ten years, with ten-percent compound interest will get you two hundred dollars.”
“For less than a hundred dollars invested today will get me…” I stop. I don’t want to say “friends,” because it’ll look like I’m trying to buy friends with clothes. Which I’m kind of doing. Which makes me wonder why I want to hang out with kids who care more about brand names than my heart.
Oh yeah. Because I don’t want to spend my life alone and I want others to see me and Emily for the kind of cool people we are. If it takes a pair of hundred-dollar jeans or a graphic on a shirt, so be it.
“If the kids can’t like you for who you are, then they’re not worth it. Clothes don’t make the person.”
If she starts talking about what’s on the inside that—
“It’s what’s on the inside that counts.”
Grandma hands me the tea and shuffles back to the table. She sits with a grunt and resumes the shelling of the peas.
I set down the mug. “Really? It’s what’s on the inside that matters more?”
Mom sighs.
Grandma shakes her head, stands, and moves my way.
“Then why don’t you wear your pajamas to work?” I ask.
Mom stares at me.
“If clothes don’t matter, then why don’t you go in jogging pants?”
Grandma hip checks me to the side, flips on the tap, and refills the kettle.
“That’s not the same thing. Of course, clothes matter—!”
“Exactly!”
Her breath hisses through her teeth. “You have to wear clothes. You don’t have to wear expensive clothes.”
“If I want to fit in, I do. I’m the only brown girl in the school.”
“And you think wearing cool jeans will suddenly make you blend in?” Sarcasm laces her question. “You think they’ll walk in and say, ‘Oh my god! Nira turned white!’”
“No, but it would make me stand out less.” I take the tea. “When we left Guyana, you gave me this big speech about the cosmos. Said how the sky was filled with more than just stars. It was filled with planets and meteors and comets. And I’d never learn about all those things if we stayed in Guyana and played with stars. Well, guess what, Mom. Saturn and Neptune don’t like to play with you if you look like a meteorite instead of like one of the planets.”
“You look like one of the planets to me. In fact, your head looks like it’s up Uran—”
Genre:
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—Booklist, Starred Review"In the Key of Nira Ghani is the YA novel today's readers have been waiting for.... This work poignantly explores the timeless storyline of defying the dreams of your parents in order to find your own path, making it a great choice for teens striving to develop their own personal identity in the face of adversity."
- Mentions of everyday cultural traditions are welcome additions to this tale of a teen finding the courage to stand up for her individuality while honoring the people she comes from. A charming, honest, and heartwarming story that will leave readers satiated and happy.—Kirkus Reviews
- This bittersweet, humorous coming-of-age story represents a common struggle faced by children of immigrants: wanting to be seen and loved for who they really are.—The Horn Book
- A love-letter to complicated families and the challenges of the immigrant experience, In the Key of Nira Ghani is sparkling, soaring, and soulful--a devastatingly authentic, pitch-perfect story of longing and belonging.—Alison Hughes, author of Hit the Ground Running
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Lovingly-crafted, poignant, and funny; In the Key of Nira Ghani is the story of a girl striving to find her melody amidst a cacophony of cultural expectations, traditional parents, and her own self-doubt. Nira's wry observations will delight you; her deep yearning will capture your heart. A fantastic addition to young adult bookshelves.
—Kate A Boorman, award-winning author of the Winterkill trilogy - Moving, uplifting, and written with a sharp sense of humor that had me laughing out loud more than once.—Robin Stevenson, author of A Thousand Shades of Blue
- In the Key of Nira Ghani is a complex coming-of-age story that will resonate with all ages.—Jacqueline Guest, author of The Comic Book War
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Witty, funny, and heartbreaking, often all on the same page. Expect to read this one all in one sitting.
—Lisa J. Lawrence, author of Trail of Crumbs - A younger high school crowd with an appetite for snark will enjoy the bumpy road that Nira walks toward authenticity, love, and true friendship.—School Library Journal
- On Sale
- Apr 9, 2019
- Page Count
- 304 pages
- Publisher
- Running Press Kids
- ISBN-13
- 9780762465477
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