ASK ME NO QUESTIONS
Budhos, Marina. ASK ME NO QUESTIONS. 2007. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781416949206
Plot Summary
Living in New York is quite a daunting experience especially when you are trying to blend in after 9/11 and you are Muslim with expired visas. Nadira and Aisha are typical sisters who quarrel but love each other and their family. They are adjusting to the American way of life. Aisha's life seems to be one of organization with bright plans for a successful future. Nadira seems to drift through high school much to the dismay of her family. When Nadira's father is arrested the tables are turned. Nadira and Aisha try to live as if nothing is wrong. Both girls, especially Aisha begin to see their futures as cloudy and uncertain. Aisha begins to withdraw from everything she loves to become invisible while Nadira gathers the courage to fight her father's battle.
Critical Analysis
The setting is post 9/11 in New York City. Nadira and her family have immigrated from Bangladesh. Several times Nadira takes the reader back to what life was like for her family in her home country, the good and the bad. "Even though we left when I was seven, sometimes if I close my eyes, its as if I were right there. I remember the boroi tree outside our house, the stone wall where Ma slapped the wash dry, the metal cabinet where Abba kept his schoolbooks. Abba carries his stories carefully inside him, like precious glass he cradles next to his heart." This allows the reader to see that life is not the same for people in other countries yet people still have feelings of love for their families and parents want their children to grow up and be successful. Regarding her father's feelings about Aisha Nadira states, "he used to tape her reports to his windshield and boast about his daughter back home who could outdo all the boys. "Nadira describes her homeland as "a land where the earth melts into the sea and back again; where people sing the same songs and eat the same white fleshed hilsa fish, wherever they live."
The author gives us a glimpse of what the Bangladeshi people wore in their country: : "I notice the bottom of her shalwar kameez flutter up around her jacket." Ma's hair is described as "her long braid swinging at her back." When describing her homeland and the women she writes, "In one house lived the unmarried sisters who kept their heads covered and bathed in the river every morning and every evening, and sang as the sky turned violet and the land seemed to shift with the turning tide. In another house lived the brothers, and in the big one were the married couples and the elders. The women swept the mud ground with brooms made of twigs and fished in flat bottomed boats."
Budhos uses names that are customary for Bangladeshi people such as Nadira, Aisha, Abba for father, and Ali-Uncle. Refering to Ali -Uncle Nadira states, "he likes to wear a long kurta and he has a beard and he prays five times a day. Abba and Ma, they do some of the holidays, like they fast for Ramadan, but it's been a long time since I've seen Abba pull out the prayer rug from the closet."
Budhos exposes us to some of the Bangladeshi language by sprinkling the words throughout the text such as a names of foods like biryani, pooris tandoori, and alu gobi.
Budhos uses descriptive language to paint pictures for the reader. "Abba is squeezing the steering wheel, open-shut, open-shut, just like the massage exercises he did after he got hurt on his construction job. He's hunched over, still as a rock, as if he can't make himself move." The story unravels as Nadira begins to find a way to help her father. The slow-witted second born decided not to follow along. Asiha and her father loose their confidence and independence and Nadira and her mother seem to pull together and find the strength and determination to find a way to help when Nadira's father is arrested because his visa has expired and he is suspected of being involved in some type of terrorist activity. The plot moves at a pace to keep the reader engaged and then begins to pick up the pace as Nadira begins to piece together the information needed to secure her father's release. The ending is very powerful with Nadira supplying the information to free her father, Aisha giving her valedictorian speech and putting a face to the word illegal immigrant and the hearing where the judge insists the lawyer does his job. This story hit me like a ton of bricks. The writing is powerful and thought provoking. Even though this is a work of fiction it provides insight to a problem that needs to be discussed. This is a story of a hard working man trying to make life better for his family. As Aisha states, We were the people you did not always see, flashing our polite smiles, trimming hedges, parking your cars in lots, doing the night shift. You needed us and we needed you. Overnight, we, the invisible people, became visible. We became dangerous. We became terrorists, people with bombs in our luggage, poison in our homes. My father just wanted to do the right thing. For us." Now there is a statement that bears discussion.
Reviews
"A moving first-person, preset tense narrative ... Readers will feel the heartbreak, prejudice, kindness, and fear." - Booklist
"Budhos has composed a compelling and thought-provoking contemporary examination of the human side of the law ... she reminds people to think differently about the people around them.' - The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Awards/Connections
ALA Best Book for young Adults 2007
ALA Notable Children's Book 2007
Kirkus Review Best Children's Book of 2006
Booklist Editor's Choice 2006
New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age 2006
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