NADIA ISLAM, ON THE RECORD

Eight-year-old Nadia and her family travel to Bangladesh over the summer.

Nadia tries to convince her parents to postpone the trip so she can spend her first Ramadan fasting with her best friend, Yasmin. When that fails, she decides to try to turn her observations into a newsworthy article to bag the editor-in-chief role at Sweetside Elementary School’s paper. When her favorite aunt, a journalist, accompanies the family to report on a story about flooding and climate change, Nadia’s discontent turns into excitement. The family heads to Sylhet, where they meet her grandparents, uncle, aunt, and twin cousins. As they prepare for Ramadan, the kids get competitive about who can keep the most fasts. Nadia also accompanies her aunt on interviews; she learns from her aunt’s mentoring and meets a dynamic changemaker who helps families displaced by the recent floods. Pages from Nadia’s notebook containing facts and investigative questions and Dwivedi’s endearing illustrations are interspersed throughout this story, which introduces Bangladesh’s landscapes, foods, and environmental challenges. Though some repetition and a slow-moving plot weigh down the story, Jaigirdar’s middle-grade debut brings nuance to the climate change discourse as she avoids sanitized approaches and examines the dangerous effects of rising sea levels on vulnerable populations. Readers learn about the spirit of Ramadan through scenes that show the characters learning about self-control, good intentions, and helping others.

An immersive story about climate disasters and how faith, family, and community can bring about change.