A middle grade read about fitting in and being different that I know I'll be adding to my sixth grade classroom library.--Brynn Allison, ELA Teacher (@theliterarymaven)

Textured and complex story. [All Mixed Up] deals with serious topics, but the tone remains sweet, the characters all drawn with love. And it's relevant if you want to process frustrating memories of the early 2000s or process what's going on today.--- Surabhi Balachander (@surabhi.reading)

Foreword Reviews
November/December 2024

In Raj Tawney's perceptive novel All Mixed Up, a multiracial boy contends with bullying and finds friendship in the aftermath of 9/11.
Kamal's father is from India. His mother is a New Yorker with Italian and Puerto Rican roots. At home, Kamal relishes diverse culinary flavors and is at ease, but at school, he's scapegoated. He feels simultaneous shame, cultural pride, and confusion over his mixed identity. Though his own self-consciousness about being brown sometimes heightens matters, he also tries to deflect his peers' negative attention with humor.

Then Kamal meets Jaz, a Pakistani student whose irrepressible smile is refreshing but who is secretive about his background. Every day, Kamal and Jaz face microaggressions and prejudice, including a teacher's insinuations about refugees, Islamophobic sentiments, and a classmate's "fresh off the boat" comments. Kamal is sensitive: he bristles when he hears a classmate comparing Jaz's looks to those of a suspected terrorist and when his grandmother expresses opinions that startle him, and he worries about Jaz's precarious home situation.

Concerns surrounding undocumented immigration gain urgency as they accumulate, including with the threat of a child's deportation. The story includes tough, illuminating conversations about when to speak up about undocumented people, when to stay silent for the sake of their safety, and when to understand that even adults don't have all of the answers. Its treatment of sensitive political topics is humane, reflected in Kamal's growing emotional maturity.

In the touching novel All Mixed Up, a middle school student faces prejudice but also makes a friend with whom he feels understood. Plotted in gripping stages, the story culminates with hope.

Publishers Weekly
June 13, 2024
All Mixed Up
Raj Tawney. Paw Prints, $17.99 (208p) ISBN 978-1-223-18855-3
On Long Island in 2002, middle schooler Kamal Rao feels out of place among his family and his mostly white classmates. With a father from India and a Puerto Rican and Italian mother, Kamal believes that he's "too 'other' for the town, and too American for my brown cousins." He's unexpectedly saved from bullies by schoolmate Jaz, "an immigrant who very clearly isn't from here." Jaz informs Kamal that he's from Karachi, Pakistan, where he learned English by watching American movies in school. To Kamal, Jaz is fearless, funny, and weird ("So am I, and it feels great"). But heightened racism following September 11, 2001, threatens their bond, and Jaz's fear of deportation leads Kamal to suspect that Jaz is hiding something about his past. Through Jaz's infectious bravado and his and Kamal's anchoring friendship, Tawney (Colorful Palate, for adults) presents an earnest depiction of two outcasts finding comfort in each other while navigating societal tension in this brief interrogation of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim attitudes. The narrative features ample nostalgic details of the time period, which are informed by the author's personal experiences, as addressed in an endnote. Ages 9-11. (Oct.)