Aarzu All Around

by Marzieh Abbas

A cricket-loving Pakistani girl stifled by patriarchal expectations disguises herself as a boy to get a job to pay her sister’s medical bills in this empowering middle grade novel-in-verse.

Living with her aunt and patriarchal uncle in Karachi, Pakistan, recently orphaned twelve-year-old Aarzu detests the way she and her younger sister get treated like extras and excluded from all the fun stuff. Aarzu dreams of playing cricket, just like her male cousins and the neighborhood boys in the streets, but her uncle will hear nothing of it. According to him, girls ought to master the art of making round rotis, not play sports.

When her sister requires urgent medical treatment but finances are tight, Aarzu decides to earn money herself. She hears of a part-time job at a bungalow near her school—but it’s only open to boys. Aarzu has no choice but to disguise herself as a turban-wearing boy to get the gig.

Now, Aarzu must find a way to balance school, work, chores, and secret cricket practices—all without burning out or getting caught by her uncle—or else her dreams of making the girls cricket team and her quest to save her sister will crumble around her.

Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Poetry, Childrens

384 pages, Hardcover

First published July 29, 2025

About the author

Marzieh Abbas
Author bio: Marzieh is an award-winning author. Raised between the bustling cities of Dubai, U.A.E and Karachi, Pakistan, Marzieh loves traveling, reading and samosas. She is a member of SCBWI, 12x12, and a graduate of the Lyrical Language Lab, Children's Book Academy, and Storyteller Academy. She loves teaching fellow creatives and has conducted several classes online for writers. She is active on Twitter, Blue sky, and Threads where she continues to form connections with the Writing Community, runs a kidlit review group on Facebook and blogs about her author journey and life in Pakistan on Instagram. Marzieh dreams of owning a talking parrot someday. But, until then, she lives in Pakistan with her husband and children who inspire her every day. A DUPATTA IS... (Feiwel & Friends, 2023) is her debut picture book in the traditional American market. She is also the author of the popular Nadia & Nadir series which has 12 books out so far and six more are on the way. Visit her on the web at www.marziehabbas.com

IG link: https://www.instagram.com/marziehabba...
Twitter link: https://twitter.com/MarziehAbbas
FB link: https://www.facebook.com/marziehabbas/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@marziehabbas...
Blue sky: https://www.threads.net/@marziehabbas...



Picture books under contract:
HENNA IS…(Feiwel & Friends, 2024)
AWE-SAMOSAS! (Clarion, 2024)
YASMEEN LARI, GREEN ARCHITECT (Clarion, 2024)
PICKLING TIME (Albert Whitman, 2025)
BOOKS ON MY BACK (Feiwel & Friends, 2024)

Board books under contract:
TBA

Chapter book series under contract:
NADIA AND NADIR (ABDO Books, 2024)

Reviews

[Makayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up for the stylistic verses.
I learned so much about cricket, which, as someone who lives next to a playing pitch for it, was an unexpected lovely surprise.

[Inez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hadn't expected this book to be in prose. Though I'm familiar with the style, it still took me by surprise. Yet, the story flows effortlessly, and its ideas and message are easy to grasp. The writing gently pulls me in, warming me with each word.

I may not have much more to say about the writing style, but this book feels deeply personal — like a letter to my younger self, the girl who sacrificed her joy and passion in hopes of being seen, especially by her family, not as a boy, but as a girl with dreams.

This book feels like a warm embrace.

Thank you Edelweiss and the publisher for granting me the ARC of this book, here is my honest review.

[Becca]

Contains an extensive glossary (5 pages) of Pakistani words, a description of the types of poetry used in the book, a recipe, and an author's note detailing the true events that inspired this story.

[Mona Voelkel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading AARZU ALL AROUND by Marzieh Abbas, this incredible novel-in-verse, and I am so awed and impressed by this accomplished novel. It was such a layered and satisfying read and the craft of the poems was amazing! I really enjoyed learning more about cricket as the sport was interwoven throughout this engaging story of a young girl's resilience in the face of losing her parents, her sister's illness, and persevering against cultural norms. Highly recommended!

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

In this novel in vese, we meet Aarzu Raza who lives in Karachi, Pakistan with her aunt and uncle following the death of her parents in an earthquake. While her cousins Arsal and Irfan are encouraged to play and watch cricket, her uncle has strict ideas about acceptable activities for girls, and cricket isn't one of them. Instead of watching the matches, she's encourage to help in the kitch. Her young sister, Sukoon, has been suffering from kidney disease for a long time, and the family struggles to pay for her treatment on the uncle's salary as a rickshaw driver. At school, Aarzu's best friend is Nazia, who is much bolder than she is. Trying to earn money to help her sister is hard, and the only thing Aarzu can find to do is sell cooked, sliced onions at the market. When a wealthy man is hiring servants for his family, Aarzu disguises herself as a boy and is hired as a servant to the children's Amma, and calls herself Azlan. She's even chopped off her hair so it will fit under a turban. She makes friend with the daughter, Zoya, and tells her the secret. Zoya is helpful, but lives a completely different kind of life. Aarzu finds it hard to balance all of her responsibilities, but still harbors a deep wish to play cricket. When she hears that there is a tournament with a large cash prize, she wonders if this might be a possibility to help save her sister. In the end, Zoya's family helps out a lot, offering the family a place to live and hire Aarzu's uncle as a driver. Will Aarzu be able to save her sister but also gain more freedom as a girl?
Strengths: Aarzu has many challenges in her life, but she meets them all with resilience and determination. She clearly cares about her sister, loves her cousins, and is grateful to her aunt and uncle even if she doesn't always agree with them. I loved that she tried to earn money to help her sister out. While cricket isn't something that excites students in the US, it has a large following internationally, and fans of basketball or football will understand Aarzu's love of a sport. As with many Southeast Asian books, there are a lof of descriptions of food that made me what to go out to eat! I'd love to see more books written by authors living in other countries, since there are so many differences. US readers will have a hard time understanding Aarzu's uncles opinions about what girls can and can't do; in the US, these sorts of opinions haven't been as strong as this since the 1960s.
Weaknesses: This starts with a lot of information about cricket, which I enjoyed, but might be a bit of a stretch for US readers who are completely uninformed about the sport. The only book I've come across that mentions cricket at all is Lorenzi's The Long Pitch Home, and that doesn't circulate well, even with the inclusion of baseball.
What I really think: Ellis' 2009 The Breadwinner first introduced me to the idea of girls pretending to be boys to have more rights; Hashimi's One Half From the East is similar. This is a good choice for readers who thought the differences in experiences between wealthy and poor characters in Faruqi's A Thousand Questions or Saeed's Amal Unbound were thought provoking.

[Kirin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hesitant starting this 384 page middle grade novel in verse, because the stereotype of having to disguise yourself as a boy to make things happen, seems like a western performative troupe that reinforces stereotypes, and has been done a fair amount in literature.  Pushing down my disdain, I opened the book to numerous pages of cricket terminology and rules, which further served as a barrier.  I do not understand the info dumping, literally, at the start of the book, and to top it all off it is not needed.  The book is blurbed as being a cricket loving, girl dressing as a boy in a patriarchal society, but really those are the most forced aspects of the all over the place narrative.  Cricket is underdeveloped and her actually playing is very minimal and lacking. Aarzu disguising herself as a boy is a blip that she admits to a few pages after she gets the job, and thus the story that remains is an orphaned girl with a mean uncle trying to find a way to help pay for her younger sister's medical bills. Which isn't a bad story it is all just so very disjointed.  And the verse is not written well, there are no beats or flow, it just seems to be a few decent poems in a sea of jumbled ones.  About 40% when the Islam starts to shine, I felt a brief connection to the book and the characters, but the loose threads and telling over showing, found skimming the pages to find out if the sister survived, if Aarzu got in trouble, and how cricket fit into it all.  The weak climax and sloppy resolution, combined with the premise, marketing, and info dumping, makes me recognize that I am not the target audience as a cynical Pakistani American reader, but truly makes me wonder who is.  I don't know that the words on the page or the story at hand are going to resonate with middle graders.  I appreciate that Islam and culture are separated, that the mean uncle is confined to him and him alone, not a label on Pakistani men, but it feels like the editor took a day off or didn't want to help the author make the story cohesive, which is unfortunate.

SYNOPSIS:

Aarzu and her younger sister have come to live with her poor maternal aunt's family in Karachi after her parents are killed in an earthquake.  She is treated like a servant by the family, not allowed to watch cricket let alone play, and her government public school is hardly a challenge.  When Sukoon's kidney failure worsens and dialysis is needed, as they wait for a kidney transplant match, Aarzu decides to find a way to make money.  She starts frying onions and selling them at the local market, the labor intensive and odorous job helps, but not enough.  When a nearby bungalow preparing for a wedding, needs laborers, her friend Nazia encourages her to cut her hair to look like a boy and apply.  Lying to her aunt about where she is, she spends her time after school getting to know the kids that live at the bungalow, confessing that she is a girl, and playing cricket.  The money helps her sister and things are starting to look up, until the truth comes out, Sakoons health worsens, finances at home hit rock bottom, and friendships frazzle.  Luckily though SPOILER the wealthy family likes her and solves all her problems and bribes the right people for her to make the cricket team.

WHY I LIKED IT:

Some parts, mostly the Islam, really spoke to me. I love that distinctions were made between religion and culture, that she taught the wealthy girl how to pray, that Aarzu is Muslim and loves her faith and relies on her relationship to Allah swt in handling every aspect of her life. The rep feels real and sincere and while it made me force a friend to read the book, it also highlighted how weak the other aspects were.  We, the reader, see so little of what Aarzu's world is, we are just told. There are no flashbacks to her life with her parents juxtaposing her current situation that would have connected us to her.  The poverty, the mean uncle, the cricket, the sick sibling, they all just seem like plot points, not pieces to this girl. She compartmentalizes them in a way that make it hard for the reader to see the overlap, or that she is keeping all of these parts close to her heart at all times.

The resolution was disappointing, it felt half hearted. Why have wealthy saviorism? Dreams coming true from bribery? It took the grit out, and made the messaging fall less on hard work and perseverance, and more on, don't be poor.

I did appreciate the kidney disease representation, having seen a loved one endure failure and daily dialysis, I appreciated the mention of dietary changes, and swelling, and lethargy, it was well done.  I wish the emotional impact, though not just the sibling love, but the fear of demise, could have come through stronger.

FLAGS:
Lying, physical abuse, theft, fear, illness

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:
I don't know of a kid I would recommend the book to, but I would shelve it, let nine and up read it, and happily discuss with whoever wants to chat about it.

[EeeJay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many thanks to Netgalley along with Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing | Salaam Reads / Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Tropes: feminism, equality, societal pressure, south-east asia

In Pakistan, the women's cricket team faces a lot of misogynistic bullshit from the public. Go to the Facebook page and read the comments; they will make you sick. These girls play their hearts out on the field and perform better than the men's teams most times and this is what they get back. I was super interested to read this book for that reason ( and also am very familiar with how cricket is played).

Can girls play cricket? Is it suitable? Is it societally acceptable? This book is written in prose and is a good starting point of discussion with your kids on gender roles and what the expectations of society are from boys vs girls. The subject matter is needed, and I would say that families of SE Asian background, who know what cricket is and how it's played, will really enjoy it.

However, the book is more for older kids, I would say age 10 or above, because the density of the words is better suited to that age group. With younger kids, you'll have to read to them. I also feel like the text could have been simplified for better understanding and written to be more engaging.

[Sanaa Ahmad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve had my eye on this book for a while because my 10 year old daughter is a huge cricket fan - spillover from her dad’s younger years as star of his school team - and because there are not many (if any) books on the market with authentic Pakistani representation of what cricket fever feels like.
The ambience of the whole novel felt like a warm hug, enveloping you in with tight prose and heartfelt poetry.
It was pleasantly surprising to see Islam woven in so seamlessly into the story, but really it should not have been surprising at all, considering what I’ve read in other books by Marzieh - her unashamed portrayal of Islam is always evidently well-done!
I especially appreciate the glossary of various poetic forms at the end of the book. It’s a tool I find immensely useful as I navigate the homeschooling waters of linguistic art form instruction with my daughter.
I look forward to numerous rich learning experiences borne from this literary delight!

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a difficult book for me to read, for two vastly different reasons.

1. It’s a novel in verse. While I love reading poetry, I find that verse novels don’t really work for me. Poetry is about packing a great deal of meaning into a few carefully chosen words. In narratives, I feel that many times depth of description and emotion can suffer when told in verse.
2. Aarzu is in just such a sad situation. Her parents were killed in an earthquake, and she lives with her mother’s sister and her husband and sons. The uncle is very patriarchal and has strong ideas about the roles of girls and women. The older son is a bit of a bully. And Aarzu’s sister suffers from a debilitating and potentially fatal kidney disease. They live in near poverty; the uncle’s income comes from taking tourists around in his rickshaw, and the aunt sells items she has embroidered.

That said, don’t think I didn’t like this story. Aarzu is resilient, and devoted to her sister. Her indomitable spirit shines out in this story.

Like so many middle-grade novels, there is a subplot of a friendship nearly broken by jealousy, but Aarzu comes to realize her faults and the friendship survives.

The book also features an explanation of how the game of cricket works, a glossary of Arabic/Pakistani terms, and—best of all to my English teacher heart—a list of the various forms of poetry used to tell the story.

Possible objectionable material:
Loss of parents, misogyny, domestic abuse (not shown). Aarzu does some serious sneaking around. Chronic illness.

Who would like this book:
If you like stories of courageous young people who find a way to rise above their difficulties, this would be a good one for you. And if you like or are interested in cricket, give it a shot.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

#BookReview #NetGalley #MiddleGrade #NovelInVerse #MarziehAbbas #AarzuAllAround #SimonAndSchuster #biblioquacious

This book is also reviewed at https://biblioquacious.blogspot.com/2...

[Srividhya Venkat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading AARZU ALL AROUND and was sorry when I finished the book.
I loved reading about - a female main character with agency, who dreams of and goes on to play
cricket (a sport I loved when growing up in India!), her resilience and courage to take responsibility and risks (without 'magic' to help her as we see in many books!), how she deals with the loss of her parents, her dialogue with herself in various situations, and of course, the poetry and lyricism. All of these elements made reading this well-crafted novel-in-verse totally worth it.

I also appreciated the author's note at the back where she shares specifics of her inspiration for certain events in the story. There's even a glossary and a recipe for a dessert mentioned in the book that I plan to try out. :-)

Overall, a highly recommended read for lovers of MG, NIV, and cricket!

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm always on the lookout for middle grade books written by non-North American authors and set in their own country. "Aarzu All Around" fits the bill. This novel in verse gives glimpses into many aspects of Pakistani culture. I loved watching Aarzu use her Islamic faith as an anchor as she figures out how to be a strong young woman, helping to take care of her little sister while working hard for her own dreams. I do feel like some of the challenges were overcome just a bit too easily to be believable, but I don't think that will both most middle grade readers.

Review based on a digital ARC received through Edelweiss+.

[Kristine Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this novel-in-verse, spunky 12-yr-old Arzu struggles to find a way to fund a cure for her sister's medical condition. Author, Marzieh Abbas, weaves seemingly disparate plot lines into a surprise outcome. I found myself astounded by the way she brilliantly incorporated deep themes through fresh metaphors on the line level. The focus on the sport cricket, along with the creative formatting of shape poems like Braids and Heated Up, makes this a perfect book for the reluctant reader. A wonderful celebration of family bonds, friendship, and Pakistani food and culture.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aarzu All Around: three stars.

What I liked:
-Daily life in Pakistan is vividly shown
-Nuanced discussion of Islam, especially as it relates to girls
-Effective use of verse (mostly free verse, with other styles incorporated as well)
-Interesting cast of characters

What I didn't like:
-Uneven pacing--the story is slow to get started, while the ending feels sudden and doesn't get a chance to resolve all the threads
-The cricket glossary/rule-explanation provided at the beginning isn't very clear (diagrams probably would have been helpful)

[LS Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This NIV is less emotional than most, but the format is perfect for making the information accessible. The different types of poetry forms added interest to the book. It is a heavy, and maybe unfamiliar, topic to some younger readers. Aarzu is an ambitious girl who won't let her dreams die or let anyone or anything talk her out of them. Her love for her sister and aunt are endearing and make her determined to do whatever it takes to take care of them and to succeed. I was hungry the whole time I read the book!

[Nathan Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel in verse is so genuine and moving. Aarzu’s determination really stands out. She’s fierce about supporting her sister and chasing what she loves, even when the world around her says she can’t. I liked how it showed the struggle of balancing family, culture, and her own dreams in a way that felt relatable but also eye-opening. I'd definitely recommend this for kids who like stories about courage and finding your own path.

[Jyoti Gopal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in Karachi, Pakistan, Aarzu All Around explores 12-year-old Aarzu’s struggles against rigid gender expectations in her conservative household, where girls are expected to cook, not play cricket. Her bold decision to disguise herself as a boy to get a job so she can support her sister, her secret cricket practices so she can follow her true passion, all this while juggling school, chores and so much more creates a story filled with tension and excitement. A powerful coming of age story.

[Reem Faruqi · Rating 5 out of 5]

As skillful as an all-rounder,
Abbas delivers a lyrical action-packed debut full of determination and grit. Underneath beautiful sensory details lies an empowering message: Never give up or take no for an answer. As a cricket fan, Aarzu's story is the feel-good-one I've been searching for all my life!

[Lydia Lukidis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aarzu’s curiosity about the world shines through this heartwarming story of imagination and culture. With lyrical language and vivid illustrations, the book invites young readers to explore traditions, dreams, and belonging. Perfect for sparking conversations about diversity, family, and hope, it celebrates seeing wonder all around us.

[Kari Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a debut novel in verse! Packed with beautiful poetry, Aarzu All Around shines a light on gender roles and the courage and determination to believe in yourself and the causes you believe in, especially when it comes to supporting your sister’s dreams.

[Meg Eden]

Was personally not a big fan of the use of verse here, but the story is so, so important and compelling and needs to get out into the world.

[Elizabeth Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a beautifully written book. Lyrical language, engaging plot. An excellent addition to any library or classroom. I found this to be an excellent model of great novels-in-verse.

[Bonnie Kelso · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoughtful story that challenges the patriarchy. The story shows how strength of character can overcome obstacles.

[Marzieh Abbas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seeing this book in stores and readers’ hands has been nothing short of a miracle after all the rejections from editors who felt cricket wasn’t popular enough in the United States of America. But seeing all the reviews about how people have connected with different themes in the book has me so so grateful. I set out to break stereotypes, like AARZU, and I’m glad so many of you love her grit!