Bibliographic Information

Title: Everything Sad Is Untrue

Author: Daniel Nayeri

Publisher: Levine Querido

Copyright Date: August 25, 2020

ISBN: 978-1646140008

Genre

Autobiography

Format

Book

Print Length

368 pages

Reading Level/Interest Level

Grades 7-12 (per Booklist)

Awards or Honors Include

• Michael L. Printz Award (2021)
• Middle East Book Award for Youth Literature (2021)
• Walter Dean Myers Award, Honor (2021)

Plot Summary

I am ugly and I speak funny. I am poor. My clothes are used and my food smells bad. I pick my nose. I don’t know the jokes and stories you like, or the rules to the games. I don’t know what anybody wants from me. But like you, I was made carefully, by a God who loved what He saw. Like you, I want a friend. (p. 16, Kindle edition)

Khosrou Nayeri (just call him Daniel) is a 12-year-old Iranian refugee learning to navigate life as a middle schooler in Edmond, Oklahoma. He loves a girl who thinks he’s disgusting, is relentlessly bullied by the class jerk, and is eyed with suspicion as Middle Eastern when the United States enters war with Iraq. When given a chance to present to his 7th-grade class, Daniel regales them with stories – myth, history, and his own past, all woven together, like Scheherazade in 1,001 Nights. Stories of Persian legend, stories about his flight from Iran with his mother and sister, stories about their time and struggles in a refugee camp in Italy. For the reader’s eyes only, Daniel also shares stories of feeling abandoned by his father, of violence at the hands of strangers, family, and classmates, curious reflections on the strangeness of American customs and cuisine, and a painful longing for his story to be told – and heard.

Author Background

Daniel Nayeri works as an author, editor, and publisher of books for children. He was born in Iran and emigrated to the United States with his mother and sister after a few years as a refugee. He has received several awards for his work, including the Printz Award for Everything Sad Is Untrue and a Newberry Honor Award for The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams (Daniel Nayeri, n.d.).

Critical Evaluation

Narrated from a 12-year-old’s point of view, Everything Sad Is Untrue is written in a quirky, conversational, flow-of-conscious voice, making it very approachable but perhaps difficult to follow. The book is not organized into chapters; very little is truly linear in the storytelling, and scenes frequently circle and loop back into each other. It’s sometimes difficult to understand what one story has to do with the next, but Nayeri nearly always ties long, drawn-out ideas back together with startling truths that seem to punch out of nowhere. That is the biggest gift in Everything Sad Is Untrue – the honesty. Nayeri does not polish things to make them more palatable for the reader; a lot of the subject matter is uncomfortable and hard to read. But that may be the whole point. Nayeri’s commitment to sharing the hard things gives readers a window into the lives of refugees in a way that can’t help but create much-needed understanding and empathy.

Creative Use for a Library Program

Nayeri references the collection of Middle Eastern folktales 1,001 Nights several times in Everything Sad Is Untrue. A library program could have youth read through and re-enact their favorite tales from the collection, practicing their storytelling and honoring Middle Eastern culture as Nayeri did when telling these stories to his classmates.

Speed-Round Talk

7th grade is hard enough without being the new kid from a foreign country, but that’s exactly what Daniel is, and no one will let him forget it. Faced with bullies, misunderstanding, and domestic struggles, Daniel attempts to navigate his new life by weaving his present situation with stories of his and his people’s past.

Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation

The juxtaposition of gritty content written in the casual, childish voice of a 7th grader makes Everything Sad Is Untrue sometimes hard to categorize between middle grade and young adult. So there may be some pushback in exactly where this book belongs in a library. Some readers may also object to the poor portrayal of Nayeri’s American peers and their ignorance towards immigrants. But as an autobiography, Nayeri writes about things that actually happened, so it might be argued that while unpleasant, the people and events in the book are simply reality.

Reason for Inclusion

Everything Sad Is Untrue offers valuable insight into a child’s immigrant experience and is told with heartbreaking honesty and vulnerability. Today’s youth would benefit from the chance to gain empathy for other kids in Nayeri’s situation and prepare themselves to be more understanding and welcoming of people from vastly different circumstances than their own.

In Daniel’s own words…