The Loophole, a novel by Naz Kutub published in June, 2022, is a surprisingly original retelling of the Aladdin story with compelling characters who deal with issues like islamophobia and homophobia. Its protagonist, Sayyed, is an Indian Muslim teenager whose boyfriend left Los Angeles (and the North American continent) three months ago, to teach English in far-off countries. Sayyed works at a coffee shop with his friend, Dzakir, until the rich, powerful, and ever-drunk Reggie offers to grant him three wishes in exchange for his lunch. Once his father realizes that Sayyed is gay and has had a boyfriend behind his back for nearly two years, he kicks him out, and Sy uses his second of three wishes (as his first one was the standard $1 million) to find his ex-boyfriend, Farouk, and win him back with Reggie’s help. Over the course of the book, he and Reggie travel the world, break a few laws, and learn more about each other and themselves. Sayyed is a very interesting character, stuck between his love for his traditional family and his ex. He cares so much about his sister and his Umi, but his Baba makes it very hard for him to live his life comfortably. He wants to spend the rest of his days with Farouk, but his own fears hold him back. With every cab ride, flight, or adrenaline-fueled sprint, he has to choose between his past and his future, his love or his family, and whether or not he should give up hope entirely. Unfortunately, Sy is demonized by many, not just his father. As he wanders the world in search of Farouk, he realizes just how hard life is for people who are Muslim, South Asian, or Middle Eastern—not just in LA, but everywhere. He witnesses riots condemning people like him, faces government officials who see everyone who looks like him as a threat, and experiences internal doubts about what it means to be gay and Muslim. The plot is captivating, the characters are worth cheering for, and the ending blows readers away. If you enjoy fantasy novels with a twist, The Loophole should be on your reading list. The Loophole by Naz Kutub. Bloomsbury YA, 2022. Buy the book here and help support Stone Soup in the process!
Young Bloggers
Letter to My Favorite Person on Earth
Dear Mom, I love you from the moon and back and words cannot describe how much I love you. You always have my back when I feel like falling over and you always encourage me to go on farther. You are my star, my streetlight, and my lamp. You make everything brighter and more hopeful. I’m always grateful that you are here to listen to my stories and give me advice. Days when I feel like giving up, you motivate me to take a step farther. I know you understand me the best and know how to make everything better. Love is an amazing thing, really. I’m able to trust you without second-guessing myself and I can express myself freely without feeling judged. I’m forever grateful for your guidance. Mom, you’re my best friend, supporter, companion, and soulmate. No one can ever replace the love you have for me and the faith I have in you. Through your help, I was able to grow from an immature little girl to the person I am now. I want to continue my journey with you forever. I’ll always support and love you just like how you do for me! I love you, my favorite person on earth, my best friend, my mom. Love, Lauren
Remember the Flowers, Reviewed by Emma, 10
Memories take Enni Harlan back in her first poetry collection, Remember the Flowers, and we are on the journey with her. Over the course of forty-two concise and vividly descriptive poems, the reader is taken through seasons in the United States and South Korea. Each detail embodies a different personality applied to it, like “the face of some unknown celebrity” in a magazine, which Harlan, age five, unceremoniously vomits on as her plane lands in South Korea. No detail is insignificant to the narrator, who turns a simple event into her next important adventure. The series of autobiographical poems tell a story that features no damsels in distress, dragons, or talking fish that happen to live in a lake at the top of a mountain. Harlan has shown that a book does not have to resemble a blockbuster movie to keep a reader interested. The only ghosts in Enni Harlan’s poetry are her everyday haunts: the remembrance of family stories that have been passed down through generations, worries about herself and her family, and her lacking Korean vocabulary (“I don’t get half / The teacher says. / They talk in Korean, I’m only half / And most / Of my vocabulary’s food: / Bulgogi, kimchi, subak.”) Harlan’s poetry is rhythmic and flows naturally. For example, in her poem “In the Evening:” “The sky darkens All around. Still we walk Past the lamp posts, Past the tree I fell from once last summer.” In a conversational tone, Harlan lays out one of her main themes—imagination—and she makes sure that people know who she is. The sentence “I was Mary Lennox’s long-lost twin, / walking into the secret garden” starts Harlan’s poem “My Secret Garden.” In this simple sentence, Harlan shows that imagination is important to her—and so is who she is in her daydreams, because that is one of the places where she feels like herself. Another example of her use of imagination is in the poem “Beneath the Fruit Tree:” “Our teeth crashed down on seeds, not flesh. / The trickle of juice was painfully bitter. / Only we and the parrots ate from that tree, / feasting/ on imagination.” While many of the poems are playful, some poems are more serious. Remember the Flowers questions the “American dream.” This question is not asked and answered bluntly, but it is hinted upon through many poems and descriptions. For example, in her poem “Balcony:” “We journeyed to Anyang, where Umma grew up— Where they’d moved from house to house. The first house, a mere Shadow in her memory, Shared with her cousin’s family. There she played with her cousins till they Went to live ‘The American Dream.’” Here, the “American Dream” is not something happy and inspiring; it inflicts a feeling of separation and gloom. Harlan translates the sadness of family breaking apart. The stanza portrays the feeling of loss. In this case, one is left with a feeling that leaving family for the United States for a hazy vision of the promising future is almost a betrayal. In her poems, Harlan also expresses her empathy for humans and other animals. In “Fumigated,” Harlan’s Appa (father) rushes to get Umma’s (mother) mirror table from their house, which was going to be fumigated because of termites. Coming home, Appa says: “I saw the termites and they said, ‘Hi.’ ‘Get out of here,’ I said. ‘You’re about to die!’” Then, in the following sentences, Enni Harlan continues: “I laugh at him. A ridiculous story but I almost want to believe it.” Harlan finds the story funny, but she also wants the story to be true. This leads the reader to assume that the narrator somehow either feels connected to these termites—she feels sad about them dying because they have become a part of her house—or that she is unhappy about killing other creatures, no matter how small. Here, as in Harlan’s other poems, the events that may seem minuscule and insignificant gain a greater meaning. This is exactly what good poetry is meant to do—zoom in on small details and change the way people look at things. Remember the Flowers is a captivating read, every poem full of hidden pockets leading to a bigger (or smaller) subject. Near the end of the collection, as Harlan begins to speak about the Covid-19 pandemic, the poems are the most relatable (“We walked a while, / six feet apart. / Each time I smiled / I forgot / she couldn’t see it.”), but the rest of the poems are also easy to understand and relate to. All in all, Enni Harlan offers us a touching and thoughtful collection of poems about belonging, family, cultural differences (and similarities), and the world around us. Remember the Flowers by Enni Harlan, winner of the Stone Soup Book Contest 2021. Children’s Art Foundation, Incorporated, 2022. Buy the book via our Amazon storefront.
