Internment

Samira Ahmed

Internment
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Little, Brown Book Group
Country
United Kingdom
Published
12 March 2019
Pages
400
ISBN
9780349003344

Internment

Samira Ahmed

Set in a horrifying ‘fifteen minutes in the future’ United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin is forced into an internment camp for Muslim-Americans along with her parents.       

With the help of newly-made friends also trapped within the camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the internment camp’s Director and his guards.       

Heart-racing and emotional, INTERNMENT questions the imaginary boundaries that separate us and challenges readers to fight the complicit silence that exists in our society today.

Review

Set in a possible near future, this is a terrifying America featuring segregation, abuses of power and racism. One night, seventeen-year-old Layla and her parents are given ten minutes to pack up their things before they are taken to an internment camp for Muslim Americans. There they are held under guard, along with many others, separated by race and encouraged to police one another. Anyone who complains is forcibly ‘disappeared’. Layla is horrified by how fearful and compliant her parents have become under these unjust conditions. With her friends on the inside and boyfriend campaigning outside, she claims her voice and learns to fight for freedom for her family and the other people in the camp.

Inspired by the American government’s ‘zero tolerance’ border protection program as well as the World War II internment of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans, this is a highly political novel that has a compelling story with complex characters and strong writing. It comes with an impassioned author’s note for young readers to educate themselves and to engage in active resistance. There are also resources to learn more about Japanese internment in World War II. Highly recommended for budding activists aged 14+.


Angela Crocombe is the shop manager at Readings Kids.

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