Accused

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this title.

I am so glad that people like Adama are sharing their stories. I am just a few years younger than Adama and, at the time, had no clue the true hatred that the general public had for Muslims. I am beyond angry for what happened to her when she was a teenager!
Adama was a young teenager on 9/11, and it changed her life forever. The US government and authorities at the time seemed hungry to 'go after' the Muslim community. Adama was caught up in this frenzy. Her life was completely changed after being accused of something terrible. Her story is one of confusion, fear, but ultimately I think that the most important part of her story is the lessons we learn about prejudice and hatred. When people are afraid they jump to conclusions, and that is not okay. Adama's story proves that. She is a brave young woman and Americans should read her story.

Excellent book written at a level fully understandable for middle grades students. A heartbreaking story that will help students understand the complexities of being 'American' and the atrocities that have occurred on 'our behalf'. I think both adults and children should read and reflect on this book.

This quick 128 page nonfiction read is enlightening and thought provoking. Adama Bah tells her story in such a way that the reader can empathize with her and what she went through. Accused: My Story of Injustice makes the reader feel as if they were just hearing Ms. Bah tell her story as if they were sitting across from each other. Recommend this title to middle school students who want to learn more about injustices, understand a little more about an American experience that is not their own or who love to hear stories about real life teens.
I received an ARC ebook from NetGalley and the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, in exchange for an honest review.

This is an important and eye opening middle grade nonfiction series. Accused is the first person account of a young woman sharing her harrowing experience of being wrongly accused of terrorism when she was just 16 years old.

Adama Bah grew up in East Harlem after immigrating at a very young age from Conakry, Guinea. She became deeply connected to her diverse community and the people who lived there. She was 13 when the events of September 11, 2001 happened. Sadly, she began experiencing discrimination and dehumanisation as prejudice toward the Muslim community grew. On March 24, 2005, FBI agents invaded her home taking her from her bed and she was arrested and ripped away from her family. Her father was arrested as well. Adama and her father were being unjustly and without any evidence accused of being a potential suicide bomber, Adama spent weeks in a detention center in Pennsylvania being questioned under suspicion of terrorism. She sustained inhumane treatment while there.


Adama’s writing is direct, sharp and brutally honest as she recounts the events surrounding her arrest and its impact on her life—the harassment, humiliation, and persecution she faced for crimes she didn’t commit.

Accused unveils a crucial first-person perspective of American culture post-9/11 and the country’s discrimination against Muslim Americans.

This is a must have new series of nonfiction by young people, for young people.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Adama Bah did a great job in writing her experience in a way that is palatable for younger audiences(middle grade and up)when discussing the hardships she went through. The book focuses on her arrest in 2005 and her experiences following it. I would really recommend this book! It is a great nonfiction book.

Accused is a story of powerlessness and unfairness in a time when American paranoia targeted muslims. What does a young 16 year old do when her country turns against her - stripping her of her identity, rights and family? Accused is only one person's tale (out of many) of the injustices of a post 9/11 world where racism took hold of American policy, ideals and popular culture.
This is one book out of a series that I am eager to read and learn more from. I am excited to share more of these perspectives from this series with my students in order to look more closely and to hear these important voices that have been silenced in the past.

This was a very short and informative story about a young girl who was failed by the US government. For a middle grade, this definitely goes into a deeper understanding of what it is like to be faced with institutional racism in the United States. I feel as though this is the type of literature that we should be showing our children so that history does not repeat itself, and institutional racism doesn't get the chance to ruin the lives of people and children they way in which it greatly affected the life of the narrator of this story.

Thank you to NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. <i>Accused</i> is scheduled for release on August 3rd, 2021.

Accused is the true story of Adama Bah, a young woman whose parents brought her from Guinea to Brooklyn when she was only two years old. About a decade later, the twin towers were struck by planes and destroyed while Adama was attending an Islamic boarding school ten hours away in Buffalo; her parents brought her home soon after. Four years later in 2005, sixteen year old Adama and her father were both forcibly removed from their home and brought in for questioning by a number of federal agencies. Adama was kept in juvenile detention for six weeks and eventually her father was deported. Adama’s life was never the same after that.

This middle grade memoir discusses some incredibly heavy subject matter and Adama manages to tell her story in a way that is accessible and easy to follow for young readers without compromising its impact. This book is fast paced, informative, and appropriate for readers of all ages, 6-106 (Lego humor).

I believe that Adama’s situation at the hands of a xenophobic and anti-immigrant government is something we’re still feeling the repercussions of and something that is still going on today, twenty years later. I highly recommend picking up a copy for yourself, your local barista, and anyone who needs to diversify their reading. AND CLASSROOMS! Every classroom in every school should have at least four copies.