Highlights Winner of the Australian Book Industry Awards’ Australian Book of the Year for Older Children Notable Book 2006 Selected as a Notable Book by the Children’s Book Council 2006, Australia Long-listed for the UK Galaxy Book Awards 2006 Short-listed for the Grampian Children’s Book Awards UK 2006 Overview Amal Abdel-Hakim is a seventeen-year-old Australian-Palestinian Muslim trying to come to grips with her various identities. It’s hard enough being cool as a teenager when failing to keep up with the latest trend is enough to disqualify you from the in-group. Try wearing a veil and talking intimately about dating and you know you’re in for a tough time at school in Australia. Luckily her friends support her, although they’ve got troubles of their own. Simone – blonde, gorgeous and overweight – has serious image issues, and Leila’s really intelligent but her parents are more interested in her getting a marriage certificate than her high school certificate! Maybe Amal’s problems are not as bad as she thinks… Randa Abdel-Fattah Randa Abdel-Fattah was born in Australia to Egyptian-Palestinian parents. She is a practising lawyer. Her other books, Ten Things I Hate about Me and Where The Streets Had A Name, which is published in Arabic by BQFP, have received extensive critical and popular acclaim. Translated from the English by Zuwaina Altuwayya