Jamie wants to be the real thing. From the roots of her dyed blonde hair… There are a lot of things Jamie hates about her life: her dark hair, her dad’s Stone Age Charter of Curfew Rights, her real name – Jamilah Towfeek. For the past three years Jamie has hidden her Lebanese background from everyone at school. It’s only with her email friend John that she can really be herself. But now things are getting complicated: the most popular boy in school is interested in her, but there’s no way he would be if he knew the truth.

Then there’s Timothy, the school loner, who for some reason Jamie just can’t stop thinking about. As for John, he seems to have a pretty big secret of his own… To top it all off, Jamie’s school formal is coming up. The only way she’ll be allowed to attend is by revealing her true identity. Will she risk it all? And does she know who she is… Jamie or Jamilah?

Another book ive read recently is “10 Things I Hate About Me” by Randa Abdel-Fattah, its a great book to follow on from her last novel “Does My Head Look Big In This?” 10 Things follows the life of Jamilah, a Lebanese girl who has, for quite some time now hidden her real identity from her friends at school for fear of them attaching any number of racist stereotypes to her and her family, so now with blonde hair and blue eyes Jamilah lives her school life as Jamie.

As this year goes on it’s becoming increasingly difficult for Jamilah to hide her identity from those that are close to her, and she’s beginning to ask some serious questions about the friendships that she once thought important and those which she once thought unimportant. She also has to deal with family life, her cultural identity and the feeling that almost any young woman I know has, that her father just does not understand her.

Quite simply a beautiful book, truly Australian, etched in our history as the book begins with people talking about the riots in Cronulla in 2006, 10 Things is more than a coming of age story, its about identity, family, friendship, self awareness, confidence, of learning to be one’s self without any fear of retribution.

I’d recommend this book to any young person, particularly females aged 13+, I enjoyed reading the book and I’m 31!

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