Fatima Tate Takes the Cake

April 1, 2023
Seventeen-year-old Fatima Tate feels in control only while indulging her passion for baking, relinquishing major life decisions to her conservative Black Muslim parents. Juggling charter school, daily prayers, hanging out with best friend Zaynab, and crushing on fellow soup kitchen volunteer Raheem is all in a day's work. Though she aspires to become a pastry chef, her working-class parents steer her toward more stable careers. Fate intervenes with an arranged marriage proposal from Raheem and a spot in a teen baking contest. Charmed by Raheem's romantic gestures, Fatima succumbs to her physical attraction for him. However, when he expresses annoyance at her male baking class partner and advises her to cut ties with Zaynab for dating a girl, Fatima bristles at his controlling nature. Growing secrets strain her friendship with Zaynab while Raheem's checkered past and a unilateral decision he makes that undermines her pursuit of her dreams make her question their future. The book presents a diverse Muslim community with conservative and progressive values, strong hijabi and nonhijabi Black Muslim women, and complex family dynamics. Aspects of Muslim life are explained, educating those who are unfamiliar with them but possibly feeling heavy-handed to those in the know. While the pacing is uneven, the honest explorations of the pressures of early marriage, relationship struggles, and conceptions of respect and double standards within a tightknit community provide much food for thought. Looks at underrepresented issues within Muslim communities, making a case for forging one's own path. (recipes) (Fiction. 14-18)

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May 15, 2023
Despite her dream of becoming a pâtissier, 17-year-old Fatima Tate knows that she must adhere to her parents’ wishes that she enter a suitable marriage and pursue a practical career. So she often bakes in secret, usually at the soup kitchen where she volunteers with her crush, charming college student Raheem. Unbeknownst to her parents, Fatima forges her mother’s signature to enter a teen baking competition and pursues a physically intimate relationship with Raheem. While she feels guilty about her mistruths, fate seems to be on Fatima’s side when her parents reveal that they’ve arranged her marriage to Raheem. As soon as the couple are engaged, however, Raheem turns controlling and manipulative. Hoping to preserve her family’s reputation within their close-knit Muslim community, Fatima silently endures Raheem’s emotional abuse, until he pushes back on her culinary dreams. Even as she struggles to gain control of her life, Fatima is a fierce protagonist who will stop at nothing to preserve her dignity. Skillful examinations of the intersections between culture, gender, and religion, as well as nuanced perceptions of one Black Muslim community, round out VanBrakle’s searing debut. Ages 14–up.