19 May 2026 THE FREEDOM SEEKER by Ruchira Gupta, Scholastic Press, August 2025, 320p., ISBN: 978-1-339-01242-1

“Outside, the banners of the Brotherhood for Justice flutter ominously. Their rallies fill the streets with angry voices and stern faces. The sound seeps through our walls, spoiling the brief moments of peace we find. More and more of our practices have been canceled because of nearby protests. Even Nanaji begins to whisper about the option for us to move to the US.”

“Now I’ve been cryin’ lately

Thinkin’ about the world as it is

Why must we go on hating?

Why can’t we live in bliss?”

— Cat Stevens (1971)

“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States, until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”

– Donald Trump, December 7, 2015

“A crowd of thousands transformed a block of the National Mall into an evangelical-style worship service Sunday at an event backed by President Donald Trump and funded with millions of taxpayer dollars.

In an eight-hour lineup, speakers including top government officials framed America as a country founded to be explicitly Christian — and in danger if its population turns from their version of that religious faith. 

Sitting, standing, dancing and praising with hands raised toward a blazing sun, attendees appeared riveted as speakers took the stage during “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving.” Many said they were thrilled to see an event that tied the nation and its government so overtly to Christianity.”

– Washington Post, May 17, 2026

“Islamophobia is the irrational fear of, hostility towards, or hatred of the religion of Islam or Muslims in general. Islamophobia is characterised as a form of religious or cultural bigotry in which Muslims are stereotyped as a geopolitical threat or a source of terrorism. Muslims, with diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds on a worldwide scale, are often inaccurately portrayed by Islamophobes as a single homogeneous racial group.”

– Wikipedia

Overlapping his two presidential terms, Donald Trump has spent a decade as cheerleader of a Islamophobic movement that has adversely impacted the approximately 5 million Muslim Americans—a million of them school-age kids—who are part of us, the U.S. This prejudice, repeatedly intoned from the Oval Office and, sadly, repeated in too many homes, has put targets on the backs of countless young people. Trump has persuaded many uninformed Americans that there is something wrong with any person who has been brought up as a member of the world’s second-most practiced religion.

THE FREEDOM SEEKER is a distinguished piece of recent-history historical fiction. It’s a tale that enlightens by providing young readers with a clear, basic understanding that “Muslim” does not equal “Bad person.” 

THE FREEDOM SEEKER provides opportunities for educators and parents to point to the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which forbids the government from establishing a national religion, and the Free Exercise Clause, which prohibits the government from interfering with our right to practice a religion of our own choosing, or to choose to practice no religion.

In THE FREEDOM SEEKER, Islamophobia becomes a life-and-death issue in a northern India hamlet where 12-year-old Simi Singh has a Sikh father and a Muslim mom. Simi is at the center of a peaceful, loving, hardworking and tight knit extended family. But then a rock thrown, with a message tied around it suddenly immerses Simi in turmoil at home and bullying at school. 

“Abbu’s bushy eyebrows have come together. He takes the rock from Ammi’s hand and slowly unties the string around it, unfolds the paper, and reads aloud. Cancel marriage between Sikh man and Muslim woman. Sikh and Hindu men are being lured to Islam with marriage. We will punish you. Go home, beef eaters.’

When Simi’s father is subsequently beaten by anti-Muslim thugs, surgery is required in order for him to be able to walk again. This leads to her father journeying to America to flee further persecution.

Simi’s father makes it to the US, receives political asylum, and gets a job driving a NYC cab. Unfortunately, a change in U.S. administrations makes Simi’s and her mom’s subsequent journey to reunite the family incredibly more dangerous and difficult in the face of government-sanctioned Islamophobia.  

After sneaking across the border, Simi becomes separated from her mother in the Arizona desert; is picked up by the border patrol; and finds herself in a government detention facility. The descriptions of daily life in that facility are eye-opening, jaw-dropping, and consistent with reporting I’ve read elsewhere.

A stellar read for tweens, the nightmarish, life-threatening journeys of mother and daughter eventually lead to a successful reunion of the family. In the process of that eventual reunification, young readers catch a glimpse of the good side of America, where plenty of us still believe in the American Dream, care about the vulnerable, and willingly step up and pitch in to help a family in need.

“You may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you’ll join us 

And the world will be as one”

– John Lennon (1971)

A million Muslim kids in America with targets on their back. Guaranteed that at least a few of them will benefit every time an empathetic young person experiences Simi’s heart-stopping journey and recognizes that, but for the randomness of fate, he or she could have been born Simi.

Richie Partington, MLIS

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