The trials of an immigrant family
by Maxine
Forteen year old Nadira is the narrator of Ask Me No Questions by Marina Budhos. She and her sister, Aisha and their parents, all from Bangladesh, are on their way to Canada because their visas have expired. The government has cracked down on immigrants since 9/11. Their illegal status is discovered at the border, their father is detained and his wife stays nearby. He tells the girls to return to New York to stay with an aunt and uncle. Aisha has always been the golden girl, bright, beautiful and ambitious. She worries that now all her dreams for college are just that- dreams. She retreats into her own world and Nadira, always seen as the average one, takes charge to find a way to keep her family from being deported. Budhos, also the author of Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teenagers, knows her subject well and brngs the struggles and heartbreak of immigrant families to life through her characters and suspenseful plot.
Blog Post