The Parkour Club

Bronte, 16, is angry that her mother decided to split up their family to return to the safety of the United States after a year in Alexandria, Egypt. Bronte loved the adventures she was having in Alexandria, adventures which included being a star pupil in a parkour club and falling in love with the beautiful and intense Sarfraz. She is also terrified that her father, a war correspondent, is heading to war-torn Yemen.

Now that Bronte is home, she feels more disconnected than she ever did in Alexandria. She misses Sarfraz. She no longer feels like she fits in with her old cheerleader friends, she is fighting with her mother, and school is a drag - until a new student, Karam, captures her attention. Karam is a Muslim refugee whose family died as they were trying to escape Yemen. Soon Bronte is helping Karam understand American culture while she, in turn, learns more about Islam, finding an inner peace as she slowly immerses herself more deeply in the religion. As Bronte’s relationship with Karam deepens, Bronte also develops a friendship with Karam’s cousin, Pearl, who is a devote Muslim eager to share her religion and culture with Bronte. Then, a couple of students are detained at the airport where they tried to board a plane to the Middle East. It appears that they were recruited by Islam extremists. Could Karam be involved? Is he really an extremist recruiter?

Pam Withers is known for her sports fiction. She regularly wraps her plots around a sport which provides action sequences and a comfortable access point for many sports-loving teenagers. Parkour is a sport that is growing in popularity and is an excellent vehicle for this plot, particularly because of its international appeal.

Co-author Arooj Hayat ensured the novel contained authentic Muslim voices. The novel provides an excellent overview of Islam, and the authors have woven several Muslim traditions seamlessly into the plot as well as explanations of some of the tenets of Islam faith. The characters of Karam, Bronte’s boyfriend, and his cousin, Pearl, are both well-rounded, sympathetic characters. The main protagonist, Bronte, is presented as the stereotypical troubled but entitled American teenager. This may have been an intentional choice to set-up the plot that she would be susceptible to the recruiter’s message, but it also makes what should be a strong female character seem shallow and two-dimensional.

The pacing of the novel is uneven. This is partially due to Bronte’s first-person narrative, but I also think it may be because the authors tried to include too many issues into the plot. At first, I thought the novel was going to be about Islamophobia because early on we are introduced to another new student, Dan, who holds some negative stereotypes about Muslims. The police also arrest Karam early in the novel when they assume he is bothering Bronte. The novel takes a darker turn, however, when the authors choose to bring in the extremist element and Bronte and Karam get caught up in a recruitment network. Adding the extremist element to the plot does provide opportunity for high-speed car chases and an adrenaline-inducing Parkour inspired scene, but I think the message of tolerance and acceptance may have been lost in the game of agent and counter-agent.

Pam Withers includes a commentary at the end of the novel entitled “The inside story of writing The Parkour Club by Pam Withers” which provides some context for the creation of the novel as well as additional information for readers in the “Acknowledgment” section.