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“Khalilieh creates an excellent balance between the complicated family relationships Jamie has with her mother and absentee father and some lighter comic moments of going on dates with Axel around their hometown of Toronto. With his golden retriever energy and loving Arab family, Axel shows Jamie how to try new things and embrace her identity in ways she never has before.”

—School Library Journal, Starred Review

“Khalilieh explores heavier topics, including mental health and racism, in a deft manner that avoids heavy-handedness. Packed with intense moments, emotional drama, and lots of loving (and fraught) family moments, the book ultimately celebrates kindness and love. There’s also a celebration of Palestinian heritage and a welcome inversion of negative stereotypes, especially about Arab men[.]”

—Kirkus Reviews

You Started It

Written by Jackie Khalilieh
Published by Tundra Books

Seventeen-year-old Jamie Taher-Foster has big plans for senior year. She’s made a list of things and places in Toronto she and her boyfriend of three years, Ben Cameron, need to check off before graduating. And the biggest plan of all: a very special night for the two of them at the upcoming Winter Formal. But then Ben arrives back home after a summer away with an unthinkable announcement: he wants to break up.

And when Jamie discovers him with Olivia Chen the next day, she is determined to get him back. Even if that means fake dating the younger, curly-haired, TikTok dancer Axel Dahini, whose bicycle she accidentally ran over.

Though she and Axel have nothing in common aside from their shared Arab heritage — she’s a messy, type A with anxiety; he’s carefree but meticulous — their forced time together brings them to better understand one another. And for Jamie, it just might mean learning that not all experiences or people need to be crossed off a list.

Primary ISBN: 9781774884751
Publication Date: May 2025
Available As: Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook, eBook
Young Adult, Age 12 or older

Community Represented: ,

Themes: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Setting: Canada (Toronto)

Character's Place in the Immigration Journey: 2nd Generation

Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience

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