Yes No Maybe So is Becky Albertalli (What If It's Us?) and Aisha Saeed's (Amal Unbound) powerful response to the "bigotry and hateful rhetoric" that came after the 2016 presidential election.
Shy, awkward Jamie Goldberg, 17, is a Jewish kid who isn't "exactly great at talking to strangers." Example? He literally choked at an interview with a senator and now, instead of interning at the state capitol, Jamie's an errand boy for his cousin, an assistant campaign manager for a Democratic state senatorial candidate in Georgia who's trying to flip his long-time Republican district. Seventeen-year-old Pakistani-American Maya Rehman, who is not "exactly the most adaptable person in the world," has also had her hopes for summer dashed: she was supposed to leave for Italy with her parents after Ramadan; instead, her parents have decided to spend some time apart.
Once childhood friends, Jamie and Maya bump into each other at an interfaith event, where their mothers suggest they volunteer as canvassers for the upcoming local election. As they make their rounds, they encounter racist voters--"Do you really think you're going to get anyone around here to vote for your candidate when they've got you knocking on their doors?"--and anti-Semitic trolls. But the hardest hit comes from H.B. 28, a new bill that "calls for a partial ban on head and facial coverings while participating in certain public activities--including driving a car." H.B. 28 would "disproportionally affect Muslim women" like Maya's mom, who wears hijab. Now, volunteering is about more than winning an election--it's "a chance to fight back." As Maya and Jamie ramp up their activism, their relationship transitions to new levels as well, and their complex but sweet "slowmance" unfolds in alternating chapters.
Albertalli and Saeed's collaboration grew out of their experiences in Atlanta, Ga., campaigning for a Democratic congressional candidate who hoped to change the historically staunchly Republican district. In an author letter, they share their goal of not ignoring the "complexities of our current reality" but instead infusing it with joy and hope. The authors emphasize the importance of exercising the right to vote, especially in local elections, and they nimbly express citizens' frustrations over ugly campaign practices, lack of variety ("Voting for the best of two bad choices still means you're stuck with a bad choice") and a corrupt system. They even equate the political climate with how Maya feels about her parents' separation: "Why do they get all the say in something that affects me too?" The developing relationship between Maya and Jamie acts as a "raft in a sea of bad news." It's filled with lingering romantic moments, awkward cultural misunderstandings and so many doubts. But it's just the right amount of romance to balance the essential message about resistance Yes No Maybe So deftly delivers. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader
Shelf Talker: A Jewish boy and a Muslim girl campaign for an election in this politically charged YA "slowmance" about the power of local activism.