num_pages: 411
description: A middle-grade novel in verse about Samira a twelve-year-old Rohingya refugee living in Cox's Bazar Bangladesh who finds peace empowerment and sisterhood in a local surf club for girls.Samira thinks of her life as before and after: before the burning and violence in Burma (now Myanmar) when she and her best friend would play in the fields and after when her family was forced to flee. There's before the uncertain journey to Bangladesh by river and after when the river swallowed her nana and nani whole. And now months after rebuilding a life in Bangladesh with her mama baba and brother Khaled there's before Samira saw the surfer girls and after when she decides she'll become one.With Khaled's help Samira pushes past her fear of the water and begins secret surf lessons. She forges a friendship with the Bengali surfer girls of Cox's Bazar and learns of a surf contest for kids that could change her life in so many ways. But as more Rohingya seek refuge in Cox's Bazar and the dynamics of her community change it becomes harder for Samira to keep her surfing a secret potentially putting her family at risk.
language: English
title: Samira Surfs
publisher: Kokila