Shifa Saltagi Safadi

This heartfelt coming-of-age novel in verse tells the powerful story of a seventh-grade Syrian American boy and his struggles, big and small, as he navigates middle school.

＂The exact type of book I would’ve loved, and needed, as a kid.＂ -- Jasmine Warga, New York Times bestselling author of and Newbery Honor recipient for Other Words for Home

**FINALIST for the NATIONAL BOOK AWARD**

Seventh grade begins, and Kareem’s already fumbled it.

His best friend moved away, he messed up his tryout for the football team, and because of his heritage, he was voluntold to show the new kid--a Syrian refugee with a thick and embarrassing accent--around school. Just when Kareem thinks his middle school life has imploded, the hotshot QB promises to get Kareem another tryout for the squad. There’s a catch: to secure that chance, Kareem must do something he knows is wrong.

Then, like a surprise blitz, Kareem’s mom returns to Syria to help her family but can’t make it back home. If Kareem could throw a penalty flag on the fouls of his school and home life, it would be for unnecessary roughness.

Kareem is stuck between. Between countries. Between friends, between football, between parents--and between right and wrong. It’s up to him to step up, find his confidence, and navigate the beauty and hope found somewhere in the middle.

Shifa Saltagi Safadi is the author of the forthcoming Middle Grade verse novel KAREEM BETWEEN (Putnam 2024), the AMINA BANANA chapter books (Putnam 2025), picture book THE GIFT OF EID (Holiday House 2025), and three published picture books with indie Muslim publisher Ruqaya’s Bookshelf. Shifa has a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and teaches ELA at a local middle school. Shifa reviews Muslim books on her online bookblog- with over 52,000 followers on Instagram and almost 10,000 followers on Tiktok. Shifa is a part of the wonderful team at MixedupFilesMG who conduct interviews with and help promote Middle Grade authors. Shifa is also a member of Muslim Book Reviewers, who host the annual Muslim Bookstagram Awards, as well as provide beta reading/sensitivity reading consultations for a variety of publishers. Shifa was born in Syria and immigrated to the US with her parents as a young girl. She lives near Chicago with her husband and four children.