I’m sure you’ve guessed by now the touchy-feely novel geared to teens will be set in a town that sounds a lot like Lewiston, ME.
Here is the news from Lewiston’s Sun Journal published in a Somali publication (Hiiraan Online):
LEWISTON — Maria Padian was in the audience 10 years ago when thousands of people gathered to support Somali families and to denounce the white supremacist group that had gathered across town.
The Brunswick writer and mother of two watched in wonder as person after person took to the Bates College stage to speak about tolerance and diversity. Some were teenagers.
“There had been so much negative press, so much fear about what was going to happen, and I think all of us were looking at each other in a state of absolute disbelief over all of the positive energy that was exhibited that day,” Padian said recently.
Ten years later, a similar scene ends Padian’s new young adult novel, “Out of Nowhere.”
The book tells the story of Tom Bouchard, a Franco-American high-schooler whose life is turned upside down when his hometown becomes the settling point for a large group of Somali immigrants.
[….]
Padian, 51, worked as a journalist and press secretary before penning her first book, a young adult novel titled “Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress.” The book, published in 2008 by Knopf Books for Young Readers, won a Maine Literary Award and the Maine Lupine Honor Award. Her second book for teens, “Jersey Tomatoes are the Best,” was published by Knopf in 2011.
Both deal with the lives and friendships of teenage girls.
Her latest book is also written for teenagers but tackles a different topic. “Out of Nowhere” centers on the friendship between two teenage boys — one Franco-American and one Somali — after a wave of immigrants move into an unprepared Maine city.
Once secure in his world, Tom Bouchard suddenly finds himself struggling to understand classmates and soccer teammates who practice a different religion, speak a different language and come from a war-ravaged country he can’t even imagine. At the same time, family members, coaches and community leaders, including the city’s mayor, all have different reactions to the newcomers.
I suspect Padian is hoping for the same success that greeted the politically-correct “Outcasts United” a story about soccer and refugees in Georgia. I wrote about it (cynically, what else!) here.
I wonder why rightwingers don’t get it—the way to ‘educate’ the low information voter is through entertainment (movies, novels, games and such), something hardly done on the political right. Why is that?
Here is a novel idea—the setting is an unsuspecting New England burg where the African Muslims are quietly preparing for a massive military style takeover of Boston. Their first target is Harvard University where they slaughter by beheading all the cool kids, sons and daughters of Senators, in the Harvard law library. But, the first one to die (on the way to the library) is the feminist who in opening scenes is leading a pro-Palestinian demonstration and making a fashion statement with one of those Yasser Arafat scarves wrapped around her soon-to-be sliced infidel neck. LOL! My novel would be one of those dark futuristic type of stories!
Can you imagine the furor that would greet my novel!
For some balance about Lewiston, ME just type ‘Lewiston’ into our search function. I just realized that this over three-year-old post-— Somali Migration to Maine: it’s the welfare magnet, stupid —is still almost daily among our most read posts.