In WE ARE BIG TIME, Aliya is far from thrilled to be moving from Florida to Milwaukee. Looking to fit in, she joins the Peace Academy’s all-girls basketball team, which has a long history of unsuccessful seasons. While Aliya loves playing, she struggles with balancing practice and classwork and with her expectations for herself. The team’s new coach skillfully guides the players to an understanding of what it means to be part of a team as she learns about their Muslim faith and cultural practices. The hijab-wearing girls stand out on the court, sometimes meeting with prejudice or having to counter stereotypes, while coming together to find success and win as a team.

Loosely inspired by a real-life team in Milwaukee, the book does a beautiful job of capturing the highs and lows of a team sports season and the great artwork helps to drive the story. Themes of sportsmanship, friendship, and pushing back against stereotypes will make it a winner with readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC to read.

This was an absolutely heartwarming and delightful graphic novel. Though set in high school, I think the content is perfect for a middle grades audience. The story is inspired by a real life basketball team in Wisconsin, and the research, interviews, and life experiences that went into this story make it so real and vivid. I loved the close relationship that Aliyah had with her family and the dynamics between all of the girls on the team. There was a lot of basketball in this book (something that I think many of my students will enjoy), yet the mantra “more than the score” absolutely describes what this book is about as well. This book will absolutely be joining my classroom library.

I was drawn to this graphic novel for the cultural story of a family who moves to a new city and house. I like how the family supports each other, making it a bit easier for the youngest children to face any novelty or difficulty in the new school. Knowing it was inspired by a true story of a team makes this fiction a great, valuable, and educational read. It's uplifting and inspiring. Major themes: moving, all the changes and stress it brings to kids, changes in friendship, new school, playing for a new basketball team, community, media, standing by cultural values, and never giving up.

Thank you Netgalley and TBR and Beyond Tours for the arc!. I read it in one sitting and really enjoyed it. This novel, I believe, addresses a wide range of topics that impact everyone, particularly Muslims like Aliya and her basketball teammates who wear the hijab and are discriminated against and belittled. I like how Aliya and her basketball team respond to the media by emphasizing their accomplishments and the positive parts of Islam, as the media typically focuses on the negative.

I also learnt a lot about basketball and understood Aliya's struggle to adjust to a new school and surroundings. The tolerance between a non-Muslim coach and Muslim players is likewise admirable and sincere. Combining highly engaging graphics. I strongly recommend this graphic novel. I'll probably buy a copy when it comes out, hehe.

Khan, Hena and Zerrougui, Safiya (illustrator). We Are Big Time. 2024,
978-0593430477. $13.99. 240p. Grades 4-8

Description: Aliya is a freshman and her and her family have just moved from Florida to a small city in Wisconsin. As one can imagine, life in Wisconsin is much different than life in Florida. It is colder, she feels like an outlier, but at least they have a school basketball team for girls…even if they have a losing record. Aliya decides she is going to make the best of it and work hard to improve her game and along the way learns a lot about herself and what it means to be a team.

Thoughts: This was a really great middle grade graphic novel. It is based on a real all-muslim girl’s basketball team and that made the book even more enjoyable. It was well-written and allowed readers to learn about the Muslim culture as well as how these girls worked to break-down some barriers.

Graphic Novel; Realistic Fiction, Sports

Tags: Identity, Basketball, Girls Sports, Gender Equality, Cultural Understanding

Aliya Javaid always tries to make best of a challenging situation with the support of her family. Her family moves from Florida to Milwaukee, WI, where she attends Peace Academy, an all-Muslim school. Having played on a basketball team in Florida, she decides to give Peace Academy’s girl basketball team “a shot” and even becomes co-captain due to her recent experience. After a few losing a few games in the beginning, the girls begin to find their groove and start winning some games. However, the notoriety they receive from the local newspapers and TV isn’t about how good the team has become but their ethnicity. All the girls wear their hijab during practice and games. Aliya and the girls are asked questions during their interviews that are unrelated to basketball, such as how are they able to see when they play with their hijab on, what are their opinions of conflict in middle eastern countries, etc. This story is loosely based upon the author’s knowledge of a real-life all-girl Muslim basketball team. With the narrative, beautiful artwork and color, it makes for an uplifting sports story.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for purposes of an unbiased review.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. The story was unique and covered so many topics! Every YA reader will find something to enjoy in We Are Big Time. Highly recommended for all YA graphic novel collections.

Thank you Random House Children's, Knopf Books for Young Readers, and NetGalley for the advanced electronic review copy of this great book. This is a wonderful story, based on a true one, of an all girls Muslim high school basketball team in Wisconsin. It’s a story about perseverance, growing close and working together as a team, struggle, and friendship. Great graphics and wonderful characters create a pleasant reading experience.

With themes of being new in school, balancing sports and school, teamwork, focusing on the positive and pushing back on media stereotypes, this 240 page middle grade graphic novel inspired by a true story is a feel good story that can be enjoyed by all.  The all hijab wearing Muslim high school girls' basketball team is researched and noted in the backmatter, and while often Hena Khan books feel performative, the tone of this is not identity based. The characters are Muslim, they are not questioning their religion, and in fact push back on the media who try and make it about what they have to overcome by practicing their faith, rather than on their abilities on the court.  That isn't to say that the Islamic representation is strong.  For characters in an Islamic school, a whole page is dedicated to being the new kid in each class, but only one "salaam" is offered.  The team informs their non Muslim coach when they need to pray which is nice, but surprisingly with a Muslim author and Muslim illustrator when the protagonist prays at home with her family, the men and women erroneously stand together.  The framing, the setup, the accomplishments are all Muslim centered, but the book is not particularly Islam centered. The take away of teamwork, hard work, and normalizing Muslim hijabi women in sports is well done, and I think an easy book for kids to identify with as they read the panels of Aliya dealing with stresses and changes, on and off the court.
SYNOPSIS:
The book starts with Aliya, her two brothers and parents stuck in a car headed from Tampa to Milwaukee.  They are relocating to be closer to her grandparents, and the kids are not excited.  The first day for the trio at Peace Academy stands out because the school is big.  Aliya who has played rec basketball in the past, now decides to try out for the school team.  Tryouts are a bust, only nine girls show, so they all make the team.  With hopes of turning a failing program around, the school has hired a new coach, a non Muslim who used to play Division 1 ball.  It seems Aliya might start to make friends with her teammates, but then she is named co-captain which ruffles some feathers, her grades start slipping, and the team still isn't winning. When the media takes an interest in the team, the pressure mounts to represent themselves, their school, their faith, and show what they can do on the court.

WHY I LIKE IT:
I love that identity is not in question and that the characters articulate the worries they have about their representation in the media, not because of something they've said or even Islamophobia, but just based on the framing of the questions, and assumptions that abound.  

I read a black and white arc, so at times I didn't know who was the dad and who was the older brother, but even with that confusion, the beginning is a bit stilted.  The dad doesn't know if his daughter was any good at basketball, and the dialogue is so flat to set the stage, that I was glad it only lasted a few pages.  I appreciated that the parents were stressing grades, but were not overly narrow minded, they were presented in a very level headed supportive way as to not fall into a common desi/immigrant stereotype.  

I don't know why the prayer scene is wrong, but the more I try and tell myself it was just a mistake, the more mad I get.  This is why beta reading is so important, Muslim kids will notice, it will make the book feel just that much less authentic, and it so easily could/should have been fixed.

FLAGS:

None, a little bit of Islamophobia, but it is pretty clean

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

The graphic novel format makes the book a pretty quick read, and most of the discussion points are handled in the text, so I don't know that a book club would benefit.  I do think having it on the shelf for kids to pick up and read, will keep the book bouncing from one reader to the next.  I know my kids have all read it...that's the beauty of graphic novels, just having it around means it gets picked up, read, and often finished, despite the readers age or even interest.

We Are Big Time is a graphic novel based on a true story that follows a Muslim girls basketball team. It shows the girls as they not only struggle to learn to play as a team, but also how they have to fight through society's pre-conceived views on their religion.

There were a lot of elements of this book that were praise-worthy. Aliya has just moved to a new school, so you follow along with her as she finds friends and works on her confidence. She learns that it is okay to make mistakes and that she is better than she gives herself credit for. You learn about some parts of the Muslim religion, like when the girls need to wear their hijabs and when they stop for prayer. They also talk about how they are sometimes viewed when in public in their hijabs. At the start I worried about telling the characters apart, but the girls not only had subtle facial differences, but they consistently wore the same color of hijab, which made it easier to tell them apart without having the advantage of different eye or hair color. What a wonderful story to not only give a peek into the lives of some Muslims, but also to highlight overcoming some of the adversities that prejudice against a specific religion can entail.

A stellar addition to any library hoping to build diversity.

This is a fictional story based on a real team of Muslim girls from Milwaukee, WI. Reading a story set in a city I know well was very cool, and the characters were so well developed. I loved the team motto, More Than the Score, which is not something a lot of teams, coaches, or families realize. This was such an inspiring story and a lot of fun to read. Any young girl into sports would enjoy this.

Big thanks for Netgalley and Publisher for this advanced copy.

Loved it! The story is gripping for the young reader, and as a muslim, it portrayed some good aspects of Muslim life

Based on a true story of an all girls Muslim high school basketball team that catches the attention of the press to inspire others. Focused and insightful.

Thanks to NetGalley & Random House Children's for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

A very fun, optimistic, and cheerful story about a girl's basketball team.

Sidenote: The artist wasn't always consistent in how the hands were drawn and it was bugging me at some points.

A beautifully done graphic novel inspired by a real life team! I’m a huge basketball fan, so that makes it easy for me to love any books, movies and tv shows that have that at the heart of it and this one falls in line with the greats! Hena Khan is a storyteller who time and time again writes realistic characters, intriguing stories, important representation and more. I love that she chose to make this a graphic novel because it added to the quality of this story in particular in my opinion. A book that will add value to your collection for sure!

What an excellent, engaging, and optimistic story about an all-Muslim girls high school basketball team! Although the characters are in high school, the story will be especially engaging to middle grade graphic novel readers, especially fans of other realistic graphic novels like Smile, Swim Team, and The Tryout. Deserves a place on every library shelf, and I'm personally always excited to see more middle grade set in the Midwest!

From the Publisher:
Aliya is new to Wisconsin, and everything feels different than Florida. The Islamic school is bigger, the city is colder, and her new basketball team is…well, they stink.

Aliya’s still excited to have teammates (although the team's captain, Noura, isn't really Aliya's biggest fan), and their new coach really understands basketball (even if she doesn't know much about being Muslim). This season should be a blast...if they could just start to win. As they strengthen their skills on the court, Aliya and the Peace Academy team discover that it takes more than talent to be great--it's teamwork and self-confidence that defines true success.

For fans of The Crossover and Roller Girl, this graphic novel goes big with humor and heart as it explores culture and perceptions, fitting in and standing out, and finding yourself, both on and off the court.

My Thoughts:
The Olympics are happening this summer and I have fond memories of being glued to the television to watch the Olympics, not necessarily for the sports, but for the stories of individual and team triumphs. It is in the stories that I learned more about the sport itself, especially the ones I was not aware of as a girl from the middle of the Pacific. These stories from the athletes are not really about the sport. They are about grit, teamwork, mental health, a parentʻs love, even overcoming racism and sexism.

This book, written by Hena Khan and illustrated by Safiya Zerrougui is about a hijab-wearing girls basketball team finding success on the court. However, more importantly, it is a story of individuals who are able to triumph and grow in their own self-worth too. The cheesy adage that teamwork makes the dream work, actually fits well in this feel good story based on true events. Sports, like music, is able to bridge diverse groups of people. That is what this graphic novel does too.

Suggestions for Curriculum and Classroom Use:
Themes:
Racism
Sexism
Identity
Heritage
Self-Worth
Essential Questions:
What do we learn from being on a team?
How does your heritage/values shape the kind of person you want to be in your community?
How does sports shape the kind of person you want to be in your own community?
Teaching Strategies/Activities:

Mentor Text for Student-Written Graphic Novels - I cannot go over all the resources available for scaffolding this for your students, nor the large library of research-based reasons for bringing in graphic novels in your classroom. Suffice it to say, this has the potential to be a trauma informed healing practice. Here is a link to a blog episode by Cult of Pedagogy founder Jennifer Gonzalez and classroom teacher Shveta Miller on "Student-Written Graphic Novels." One of the most transformational "ahas" I got from the transcripted podcast is when Ms. Miler writes,
My students have often used their graphic novel projects to explore a private aspect of their identity. . . The genre allows our young writers a language they can use to describe complex emotions and concepts before they have the skills to do so in narrative form alone.
Reading Ladders the late Teri Lesesne wrote a book titled Making the Match: The right book for the right reader at the right time, grades 4-12. Simply, a reading ladder is a strategy to gradually guide students from their current reading level to a higher level. By higher level, I mean higher level of complexity, not higher lexile. I know by practice that students can read above their lexile level is you scaffold, differentiate, bridge, etc. This concept is for teachers that allow their readers to self select books for the important job in middle school of nurturing a love of reading that will sustain them throughout their life. So understanding a reading ladder as a teacher is not about looking up lexile scores or age markers on Amazon. It is about being an avid, wide-ranging reader of books so that you have the right book for the right reader at the right time. I then like to do drive by book talks or elevator speech book talks that are fast ladder rungs when students are returning a book and looking for the new one to read.

If you like this book, try Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang. This is also about a real basketball season, but the complexity is upped when the author's own wife becomes his conscience. The fourth wall of the comic panels are broken and we get to see inside the many artistic and writing decisions that Mr. Yang makes to tell this story. This could also be a mentor text for older students using activity 1.
Switch the genre, go even more complex and follow up with Crossover by Kwame Alexander. We are still in upper elementary and middle school, but as a novel in verse pacing matches the dribbling on the court. If this kind of voice is unfamiliar to your students, get the audiobook narrated by Jalyn Hall and use that for "re-reading for meaning making."
Assessment
I live in Hawaiʻi but I am taking a class out of the University of Nebraska - Lincoln this summer. It is about difficult conversations in a divisive community and it runs for me at 4 am to 7 am and then I start my day with two of my grandkids, 3 and 7. I talked about why we need to teach diverse literature and found that in Nebraska, they are still teaching Catcher in the Rye, TKAM and The Great Gatsby. This graphic novel would be a great diversity lit piece. They can use it to do some diversity research. For example, one of the teachers talked about not knowing if there were Muslims in Nebraska. I looked it up. There are about 10,000 Muslims in Nebraska. It is not a lot. Nebraska is predominantly white, but I Googled Muslims in Nebraska and found 3 mosques in the city.

So assessment: Research diverse communities hidden (from you, not from the rest of the world)in your "backyard."
Use the microaggressions bingo to provide a lens for their research Have them come up with their own "won't you be my neighbor" project. Assess on empathy.

Publication Information:
Author: Hena Khan
Illustrator: Safiya Zerrougui
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (August 6, 2024)
Paperback: 240 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0593430477
Grade level: 3-7

This was a wonderful and heartwarming graphic novel following a girl joining an all-Muslim basketball team. I loved Aliya's character, and how we got to see her struggle with the pressure of school, sports, and media attention. I also really appreciated the ways the book touched upon themes of representation and discrimination. I look forward to brining this book to my students this fall!

A powerful story of perseverance and teamwork for readers of all ages.

Inspired by true events, We Are Big Time is a heartfelt and entertaining graphic novel that follows an all-girl hijab wearing basketball team at an Islamic high school. Aliya, new to the school, tries out for the team and soon finds herself juggling the pressures of playing basketball while keeping her grades up, striving for greatness despite setbacks, and navigating the spotlight from the town and media as the team achieves success. While staying grounded in the timeless story of a sports team learning to trust and work together to reach their goals, Khan weaves in essential commentary about breaking stereotypes of Muslim women and girls. While the town's media tries to focus their story on the girls' differences, especially in how they dress and how their culture impacts their place in the world, the teen girls find their strength by speaking up about what's important to them and how they want to tell their own story. Readers of will enjoy this sports story that features all the highs and lows of playing sports in high school, along with memorable characters and authentic voices that will leave readers cheering.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's for this ARC.

Aliya moves to a new town and is part of an all Muslim basketball team team in this new graphic novel. The girls prove they are “more than the score” and that they can change others perspectives about Muslim girls.