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Saints and Misfits

Author S. K. Ali
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Saints and Misfits is an unforgettable debut novel that feels like a modern day My So-Called Life…starring a Muslim teen.

There are three kinds of people in my world:

1. Saints, those special people moving the world forward. Sometimes you glaze over them. Or, at least, I do. They’re in your face so much, you can’t see them, like how you can’t see your nose.

2. Misfits, people who don’t belong. Like me—the way I don’t fit into Dad’s brand-new family or in the leftover one composed of Mom and my older brother, Mama’s-Boy-Muhammad.

Also, there’s Jeremy and me. Misfits. Because although, alliteratively speaking, Janna and Jeremy sound good together, we don’t go together. Same planet, different worlds.

But sometimes worlds collide and beautiful things happen, right?

3. Monsters. Well, monsters wearing saint masks, like in Flannery O’Connor’s stories.

Like the monster at my mosque.

People think he’s holy, untouchable, but nobody has seen under the mask.

Except me.
S. K. Ali is the author of several books, including Saints and Misfits, a finalist for the American Library Association’s 2018 William C. Morris Award and winner of the APALA Honor Award and Middle East Book Honor Award; and Love from A to Z, a Today Show Read with Jenna Book Club selection. Both novels were named best YA novels of the year by various media sources including Entertainment Weekly and Kirkus. Fledgling, the first book in The Keeper's Records of Revolution duology, is a Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC) finalist. You can find Sajidah online at SKAliBooks.com and follow her on Instagram @SKAliBooks, on TikTok @SKAliBooks, and on X @SajidahWrites. View titles by S. K. Ali

About

Saints and Misfits is an unforgettable debut novel that feels like a modern day My So-Called Life…starring a Muslim teen.

There are three kinds of people in my world:

1. Saints, those special people moving the world forward. Sometimes you glaze over them. Or, at least, I do. They’re in your face so much, you can’t see them, like how you can’t see your nose.

2. Misfits, people who don’t belong. Like me—the way I don’t fit into Dad’s brand-new family or in the leftover one composed of Mom and my older brother, Mama’s-Boy-Muhammad.

Also, there’s Jeremy and me. Misfits. Because although, alliteratively speaking, Janna and Jeremy sound good together, we don’t go together. Same planet, different worlds.

But sometimes worlds collide and beautiful things happen, right?

3. Monsters. Well, monsters wearing saint masks, like in Flannery O’Connor’s stories.

Like the monster at my mosque.

People think he’s holy, untouchable, but nobody has seen under the mask.

Except me.

Author

S. K. Ali is the author of several books, including Saints and Misfits, a finalist for the American Library Association’s 2018 William C. Morris Award and winner of the APALA Honor Award and Middle East Book Honor Award; and Love from A to Z, a Today Show Read with Jenna Book Club selection. Both novels were named best YA novels of the year by various media sources including Entertainment Weekly and Kirkus. Fledgling, the first book in The Keeper's Records of Revolution duology, is a Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC) finalist. You can find Sajidah online at SKAliBooks.com and follow her on Instagram @SKAliBooks, on TikTok @SKAliBooks, and on X @SajidahWrites. View titles by S. K. Ali

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