We Are Big Time

Gr 5-10–High school freshman Aliya is worried about adjusting to her new Islamic school in Milwaukee after moving away from a happy social life in Florida. The cold alone is enough to make her nervous, but leaving her friends and basketball team behind seems like too much. At her new school, she joins the all-girls basketball team—which is infamously terrible—but it’s there that she finds the support and friendship she had hoped for. Based on a true story, this fictional graphic novel is first and foremost a basketball triumph story. Plenty of informational content about the team’s Muslim identities is delivered through the backstories of the players and how they respond to the seemingly endless, invasive questions from reporters about their home lives and their hijabs. Zerrougui’s bright, fluid illustrations capture the movement of a team sport nicely.