Meet-the-Author Recording with Maleeha Siddiqui

Barakah Beats |

Maleeha Siddiqui introduces and shares some of the backstory for creating Barakah Beats.

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Maleeha Siddiqui: Hello. My name is Maleeha Siddiqui, and I am the author of Barakah Beats, a middle-grade novel from Scholastic about a twelve-year-old Muslim girl named Nimra Sharif who transfers to public school for the first time after spending her entire life in Islamic school. In an effort to fit in, Nimra joins her new school's popular eighth-grade boy band called Barakah Beats.

This book was inspired in part by a desire to see my own experiences growing up in the US as a practicing Muslim reflected in a fun, relatable, and joyful
story, as well as my middle-school obsession with boy bands. But most importantly, I wanted to tell the story of a proud young Muslim girl dealing with the same kind of issues that I think every kid her age deals with today -- faith, family drama, friendships, old and new.

Incorporating numerous Muslim background and Islamic beliefs was the most difficult part about writing the book for me.
I think it's because, growing up, I never read stories that had characters that looked or acted like me, so I didn't think anyone would want to read a book with a main character like that. It took a lot of courage for me to not hold back on that aspect of Nimra's journey. Only when I stopped being shy of who I am was I able to give Nimra that same confidence.

My favorite part of creating Barakah Beat was the band and the boys and all of Nimra's fun interactions with them throughout the book.
I loved writing about how they all meet at school and their budding friendship. And most of all, I love the whole process Scholastic took me through when the book's cover was being developed. I never imagined all of the main characters ending up on it, but I'm so glad that's the direction we went in because I could not be happier with the end result. I hope looking at it brings readers as much joy as it does for me.

My process for creating the book was pretty straightforward in the sense that I didn't have to go back and change a lot of the big events, because I
already knew how the story was going to end. I did have to expand and add elements to the plot to deepen numerous character arc though, and really convey all the different things she was struggling with. I had to do a little bit of research on music and how songs are written. I didn't want to get into it too much because I'm no music expert, but it was fun thinking back on my middle school band years and looking up YouTube videos of the kind of songs that Barakah Beats would write and perform. I had a pretty awesome playlist while I was writing this book, and a few of the songs helped me get through writing some hard scenes.

There are a lot of things that I hope readers think about or feel after reading Barakah Beats, but the biggest message I hope everyone takes away is
to be proud of who they are. Don't settle for any kind of relationship where you feel like you have to be any less than you. Also it's important to remember that even when you share the same background with someone, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to 100% agree with them on everything. You can treat everyone with compassion and respect without compromising your own boundaries. I know it's hard because everyone wants to fit in, but you can also fit in by standing out just like Nimra.

This Meet-the-Author Recording with Maleeha Siddiqui was exclusively created in October 2021 by TeachingBooks with thanks to Scholastic.