47 pages • 1 hour read
Maleeha SiddiquiBarakah Beats
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaChapters 19-28Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary
At Friday band practice, Waleed is stressed out about the fundraiser. The bandmates suggest they need a weekend to relax instead of worrying about ADAMS. Nimra wants to spend time with her friends outside of school but is unsure whether her parents will let her spend time with people they don’t know. To get Mama and Baba’s approval, she suggests that her friends come to her house for a movie.
Nimra cleans before her friends come over. When they arrive, Baba is surprised to see she’s invited boys. In the basement, Nimra’s friends find her sketches and press her to post them online. Nimra suggests a movie so they won’t talk about her anymore.
Nimra panics when the group starts talking about the fundraiser. She fears that her parents will overhear and she’ll “get in a lot of trouble” (192). She wonders if the performance is worth it.
The boys perform a silly song and dance competition during the movie. Afterward, they bring up the fundraiser and band t-shirts again. Khadijah shows Nimra a picture of the t-shirt design that uses her logo. Baba enters, sees the logo, and asks about Barakah Beats. Nimra interrupts, telling Baba he forgot drinks and napkins. She’s relieved when her friends suggest pausing their hangout to pray. Afterward, the friends draw caricatures of themselves and take sketching lessons from Nimra.
After Nimra’s friends leave, Mama and Baba remark how nice they are. Nimra feels tired of lying and tells her parents about the fundraiser. They say they’re busy and won’t be able to attend before Nimra can tell them she’ll be singing with Barakah Beats. She decides to perform in secret and then quit the band.
Chapter 20 Summary
On Monday, a group of students swarms Nimra exclaiming about her singing voice. The band recently uploaded a recording of their song online.
At lunch, Nimra invites Khadijah to join Jenna’s table with her, but Khadijah doesn’t want to sit with Nimra’s other friends. Nimra doesn’t understand and leaves Khadijah by herself. She feels guilty for abandoning her but wants to be with Jenna. Jenna and her friends badger Nimra with questions about Barakah Beats and ADAMS. Nimra chokes on her food when they ask if she has a crush on any of her bandmates. They insist that Matthew is off limits because Julie likes him. Then, Jenna begs Nimra to introduce Matthew and Julie during gym class. Nimra looks at Khadijah and realizes that she’s heard the entire conversation.
Chapter 21 Summary
The students play soccer in gym. During the break, Jenna urges Nimra to introduce Matthew and Julie again. When the girls join Bilal and Matthew, Nimra jokes with them. She notices Julie “turning a scary shade of red” when she tries to get her and Matthew to talk (215). Afterward, Bilal tells her that Matthew isn’t interested in Julie. Nimra feels bad, but Julie is grateful for Nimra’s help. She even apologizes for discriminating against Nimra and asks to be friends.
Chapter 22 Summary
Nimra watches Jenna, Julie, and Val decorate Evelyn’s locker for her birthday. Since gym, she and Julie have been friendlier. When Nimra dismisses herself for band practice, Jenna begs to come watch. Nimra doesn’t like the idea and pretends that the boys wouldn’t want an audience. Afterward, Khadijah tells Nimra that the band wouldn’t mind Jenna visiting. Then, she explains why she personally doesn’t like Jenna or her friends. They used to be nice to Khadijah when they first learned she was Bilal’s sister. However, they’ve since rejected her. Nimra realizes Jenna did the same thing to her, but she doesn’t know if she should let Jenna go yet.
Chapter 23 Summary
Nimra’s grandparents invite Nimra’s family over. Nimra tries to avoid her parents and grandparents, but they start fighting at dinner. Nana and Nano are angry with Mama and Baba for letting Nimra draw when she should be pursuing other hobbies. They blame Mama for leaving her job and setting a bad example again. Nimra yells for them to stop fighting and races out of the room. She falls asleep upstairs and wakes up hours later.
Nimra reads her friends’ group chat about their new demo. She feels better when she listens to the song. However, she knows she can’t stay in Barakah Beats given her parents and grandparents’ fight.
Chapter 24 Summary
Nimra pretends to be sick to get out of band practice. Waleed is furious because they only have two more days to practice before the fundraiser. When he yells at Nimra, she accuses him of being unprofessional and unkind. In the cafeteria afterward, Nimra realizes she must tell the band the truth. She rushes to the band room and interrupts her friends’ argument about their song. She reminds them that they’re playing in the talent show to help people and to have fun, not to win. Then, she reveals that she only joined the band to win back Jenna. She doesn’t believe in playing or writing music and has been lying to everyone about her feelings. Everyone is stunned into silence.
Nimra runs into Jenna in the hall. She tells Jenna that she left the band because they got into a fight. Jenna insists that the band will take her back if she apologizes. Nimra realizes that Jenna only cares about the band, and not about her. She confronts Jenna for being a bad friend and failing to care about her or who she is.
Chapter 25 Summary
Nimra stays home from school and closes herself in the basement. She won’t come out even when Mama and Baba beg her to. She tries to sketch to calm down. Her pictures only remind her of her friends and the band. She decides to recite the Qur’an instead. However, she can’t remember the verses and starts crying. Baba and Mama come in and comfort her.
Finally, Nimra reveals everything. She tells them about Jenna, her new friends, Barakah Beats, the fundraiser, and her fears of disappointing them. Her parents reassure her instead of getting upset. They remind her to follow her heart and make her own way. She can stay in the band if that feels right to her, but if it doesn’t, she should quit. Whatever she decides, she should perform in the talent show to keep her promise to her friends. Then, they announce that Nimra can take art and drop Spanish the following year.
Chapter 26 Summary
Nimra returns to school the next day. She texts her friends about an emergency band meeting in the band room. Once they’re all together, Nimra apologizes for hurting them. She explains that she genuinely enjoys spending time with them and playing with the band. She wants to be in the talent show but will leave Barakah Beats afterward because of her beliefs. She hopes they can still be friends. Waleed, Bilal, Matthew, and Khadijah forgive Nimra and welcome her back. They make plans to meet up and finish practicing after school. Before parting, Matthew reveals that he has a new, secret plan for their performance.
Chapter 27 Summary
The band waits backstage in their matching Barakah Beats t-shirts before their performance. They’re nervous, but as soon as they go on stage, Nimra feels more confident. She sees her family in the audience. The music moves through her when she sings. Near the end of the song, she performs the solo Matthew wrote for her. Then, the band sings an important passage from the Qur’an. The audience bursts into applause.
Backstage, the bandmates congratulate one another. Their families join and congratulate them, too. Shortly thereafter, the judges announce that Barakah Beats has won the talent show. Nimra knows that she’ll be leaving the band but is thankful for the time they’ve spent together.
Chapter 28 Summary
Nimra remains friends with the band even after she drops out of Barakah Beats. Since the talent show, the group’s popularity has grown. Nimra continues to support them, and they support her decision, too.
At school one day, Nimra and Waleed chat about their artistic futures. Waleed’s father has started supporting his music since the fundraiser. He asks Nimra if she’ll design the album cover for Barakah Beats’s first album. Nimra excitedly agrees.
Chapters 19-28 Analysis
Chapters 19-28 trace the novel’s climax, descending action, denouement, and resolution. In Chapter 19, the narrative tension increases as the day of the talent show fundraiser approaches. The closer the Barakah Beats band members come to their performance, the more anxious and worried they feel. As a result, the narrative atmosphere and mood become more tense. Soon the fundraiser tension bleeds into Nimra’s heart, mind, and body and pressurizes her internal world, too. Nimra is worried about the talent show because she is keeping the band and the performance a secret from her parents. She is also keeping the truth about her religious beliefs from Waleed, Bilal, Matthew, and Khadijah. Therefore, when Nimra’s friends come over to her house in Chapter 19, Nimra struggles to enjoy the evening. Every time her parents come into the basement and every time her friends mention Barakah Beats or the fundraiser, Nimra panics. She still hasn’t “come up with a way to tell Mama and Baba” and knows that “[t]ime’s running out” (192). These internal and external conflicts intensify the narrative and accelerate its pacing. At the same time, these narrative tensions further the novel’s themes of Adolescence and Belonging, Cultural and Religious Identity, and Music and Art as Forms of Expression. Nimra has found both people who like and understand her and places where she can express herself. However, because Nimra hasn’t been honest with herself, these same people and places make her feel tense, conflicted, and guilty. As a result of Nimra’s inability to claim her true identity, her behaviors become increasingly unpredictable as the climax approaches.
Nimra’s decision to be honest with the band and with Jenna in Chapter 24 acts as the climax of the novel. Throughout the preceding 23 chapters, Nimra has been lying to her best friend, her new friends, and her parents. Although her lies began as a way to protect the people she loves, they have come to hurt Nimra and have the potential to damage her relationships. Nimra decides to come out with the truth at the end of Chapter 23 because she can’t bear the thought of letting “Barakah Beats split up [her] and [her] parents” (234), particularly after watching her parents and grandparents fight again. Her family’s inability to communicate makes Nimra want to communicate better. At the start of Chapter 24, Nimra tells the band her real reasons for joining Barakah Beats and agreeing to the fundraiser. She knows her honesty might compromise her friendships; however, she also knows that being dishonest to herself hasn’t helped her relationships with her friends or her family either. As she confesses to the band, she realizes, “I hurt them, not the other way around” (241). Nimra then confronts Jenna: the friend who has hurt and disappointed her. Throughout the novel, Nimra has chosen silence in all her relationships. In her friendship with Jenna, her silence has caused Nimra to compromise who she is and to withstand Jenna’s unkindness and discrimination. She tells Jenna what she’s suspected and denied for too long: “It was easy for you to hide what you really thought about me being Muslim when it was just us two, but that changed when you had to start hanging out with me in public” (245). This scene marks a pivotal turning point in Nimra’s narrative and her character arc. By confronting Jenna, Nimra is refusing “to be friends with someone who doesn’t care about [her]” for who she is (245). Therefore, Nimra is reclaiming her Cultural and Religious Identity. Both of her conversations in Chapter 24 challenge Nimra to be honest with herself and to present this honest version of herself to others.
The narrative tension dissipates after Nimra reveals the truth about Barakah Beats to her parents in Chapter 25. Throughout the novel, Nimra has convinced herself that if she expresses her desires and needs, others will reject her. She’s convinced that Waleed, Bilal, Matthew, and Khadijah will stop being her friends if she explains her Islamic interpretations. She’s convinced that Jenna, Val, Julie, and Evelyn will reject her if she confronts them about their stereotyping. She’s convinced that Mama and Baba will be disappointed, hurt, and angry if she tells them about her real passions and fears. In Chapter 25, Nimra’s parents disprove Nimra’s theories about others and herself. They not only comfort, accept, and encourage Nimra, but they also help her to remember who she is, to “look deep inside [herself]” (253), and to see the dangers of making all her decisions based on other people. She realizes while talking to Mama and Baba, “It’s time I figure out what I need to do” (253). Therefore, Mama and Baba positively influence Nimra. They also alter the narrative mood because they help Nimra to refocus and rediscover her internal balance. As a result, Nimra is better able to make amends with her friends, vocalize her beliefs and wants, and express herself more clearly. Nimra’s decision to be honest with her family and friends reveals her growth as a character. Her honesty transforms both her internal landscape and sets the stage for more authentic relationships in the future.
