The Weight of Our Sky

Synopsis

A music loving teen with OCD does everything she can to find her way back to her mother during the historic race riots in 1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in this heart-pounding literary debut.

Melati Ahmad looks like your typical movie-going, Beatles-obsessed sixteen-year-old. Unlike most other sixteen-year-olds though, Mel also believes that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who threatens her with horrific images of her mother’s death unless she adheres to an elaborate ritual of counting and tapping to keep him satisfied. A trip to the movies after school turns into a nightmare when the city erupts into violent race riots between the Chinese and the Malay. When gangsters come into the theater and hold movie-goers hostage, Mel, a Malay, is saved by a Chinese woman, but has to leave her best friend behind to die. On their journey through town, Mel sees for herself the devastation caused by the riots. In her village, a neighbor tells her that her mother, a nurse, was called in to help with the many bodies piling up at the hospital. Mel must survive on her own, with the help of a few kind strangers, until she finds her mother. But the djinn in her mind threatens her ability to cope.

Copyright:

2019

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9781534426108

Related ISBNs:

9781534426085, 9781534426085

Publisher:

Salaam Reads / Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Date of Addition:

05/14/20

Copyrighted By:

Hanna Alkaf

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Teens, Literature and Fiction, Parenting and Family, Psychology

Grade Levels:

Seventh grade

Reading Age:

12 and up

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.

---