Review by Carolina Leyton
Orca Book Publishers, 2024
264 pp, paperback, $14.95, 9781459837942
Middle Grade, ages 9 – 12
Fiction
In a world as dark as this, choose to be kind,
And let your virtues light the way
For anyone left behind.
And this journey isn’t easy,
You’ll fall from time to time,
But you have to walk the path
If you want to help the blind.
So, if you’re with me,
Hands up, and look me in the eyes!
Call Me Al is a collaboration between acclaimed poet Wali Shah and renowned author Eric Walters, in which the experience of growing up an immigrant of colour is tackled in an open and honest way, ultimately leaving young readers with messages of forgiveness and hope.
Ali Khan is your typical eighth grader: he wants to impress his crush, he wants to impress his friends, and he dreads disappointing his family. However, things start to shift in Ali’s life as he is confronted with the ways in which his classmates, even his best friend, treat him differently due to his race and background. Inspired by his teacher, Al tries poetry and spoken word as an outlet to talk about his feelings and experiences. But finding your voice is hard, and it is harder still when you have a father who doesn’t see the value of art.
In this slice-of-life, coming-of-age story, we see Ali navigating so many different aspects of being a Pakistani Muslim teenager in North America. The conversations this book opens up are so important, from dealing with micro-aggressions and overtly racist attacks, to reckoning with the ways in which Ali partakes in systems of white supremacy in order to fit in. This is particularly poignant in Ali’s relationship with Asma, his new Pakistani classmate who he must show around school. He makes fun of her and thinks she should do more to fit in, like he does. Asma, however, will teach him a thing or two about being proud of his culture.
The relationships in this novel are some of its best parts. Though he struggles with loneliness, Ali is never truly alone. For one, Ali has his Dada, or paternal grandfather. As we learn of Iqbal Khan’s tragic backstory, Ali’s Dada serves as the facilitator of so many lessons, showcasing the importance of listening to and being supported by elders. Iqbal himself is a poet, and supports his grandson in ways Ali’s father struggles with.
It’s not just the elders that carry wisdom in this story. Al’s relationship to his best friend, Zach, is a fresh, fun dynamic to explore. Zach is a white, lower-class boy who lives in the same complex as Ali. They’ve been friends for a very long time, but their friendship hits a huge boulder when Zach partakes in their classmates’ microaggressions toward Ali. Justifiably angry, Al feels like that friendship has come to an end, this feeling also fueled by the similarities between his family’s aggressors and Zach. However, Zach represents a true ally when he does the work to learn, understand, and repair his friendship with Ali, teaching Al and readers about forgiveness, but also about what it takes to dismantle white privilege.
I couldn’t put this story down. I smiled lovingly and I clenched my fists furiously. This novel explores the living contradiction that encompasses being a child of immigrants: Ali must reconcile his voice with the expectations set for him by his family, a family that has given up so much up to provide him with a better life. Call Me Al is a celebration of Pakistani stories of resilience. It’s heartwarming to see Ali fall in love with his culture and use poetry to discover how to make space for himself. Ali’s character offers a new role model for young readers, and his story provides fantastic representation for children of colour.
Carolina Leyton is a current MA student in the Children’s Literature program. She completed her BA Honours in UBC Okanagan. From the age of 9, she has been an avid reader and writer, and now hopes to become an author of critical, important, and unique YA novels.
YOUNG ADULTING 