Kick the Moon
by Muhammad Khan 
Publisher – Macmillan Children’s Books
Release Date – January 24th 2019
Buy – Amazon | Book Depository

Fifteen-year-old Ilyas is under pressure from everyone: GCSE’s are looming and his teachers just won’t let up, his dad wants him to join the family business and his mates don’t care about any of it. There’s no space in Ilyas’ life to just be a teenager.

Serving detention one day, Ilyas finds a kindred spirit in Kelly Matthews, who is fed up with being pigeonholed as the good girl, and their friendship blows the social strata of high school wide open. But when Kelly catches the eye of one of the local bad boys, Imran, he decides to seduce her for a bet – and Ilyas is faced with losing the only person who understands him. Standing up to Imran puts Ilyas’ family at risk, but it’s time for him to be the superhero he draws in his comic-books, and go kick the moon.

From Muhammad Khan, author of the critically acclaimed I Am Thunder, comes Kick the Moon, an explosive second novel about making friends, and breaking them too.

My Review

When I first started reading this book, I didn’t know what I was in for. I had no expectations, I’d never read anything by Muhammad before but when I was offered to read it, there was something about it that I couldn’t say no. What I felt and that I was crying wasn’t what I had in mind when I finished this book, would you associate crying with the cover of this book?! I certainly didn’t. This is a killer of a review to write because it’s so hard to put it in words. I need to do Kick the Moon justice! Enjoy!

Ilyas Mian, a British-Pakistani teenager loved superheroes when he was a kid, he loved Superman, he went all out on World Book Day to be him and he knew it was the best costume, but his class mates had other ideas, that being black you can’t be superman and since that day, his dreams were torn away. Years later, Illyas faces the perils of being in a leading gang, the conflict between what is expected of him and what he should do, what’s right by him and his family and that of DedManz. That line blurs when lashes out, putting them in hospital and Ilyias a week’s worth of detention, what he discovers is an unlikely friendship, a kindred spirit of comics and proving to be someone better…

Ilyas’s story is one that will shred you to pieces from when he’s spiralling out of control to when someone(s) start to believe in him. It’s more than just a guy in a gang, but just like any teenager he has a future hen he’s given the chances, the break that he needs too. He found that in his friendship with Kelly, a girl exactly in the same as Ilyas, part of the popular squad of b***** in school when in fact she’s like to create stories, dress in character onesies and speaks like Yoda. The reality is that Ilyas and Kelly have a tough exterior but on the inside they are slowly slipping away from their true selves.

My emotional response is a positive one, at the end I felt I kicked the moon. This book right here is what needs to be read, respresenting gang culture,  and heard – defining who you are. It’s inspirational story that a lot of teenagers will relate too, I related to it and working in a school, around your neighbourhood, you see so much and you need this book to know there is hope. The impact of Muhammad’s writing really resonated with me, it really hit me, I felt emotionally kicked in the chest. Not only his writing but the feelings you have for the characters runs deep, their own voices coming through the pages, like Ilyas’s Amma, who really reminds me of my own mum and one particular character I simply admired was Ms Mungal – what an inspiration to her students, everyone needs like a teacher like to believe in you and to get you to express yourself. She is kick-ass.

Muhammad Khan is author that needs to be heard, his second book is powerful literature, of heartfelt and a hopeful messages. Kick the Moon is a YA masterpiece of finding your identity, standing up for what’s right and expressing yourself.

On a side note – I thought Amrit Birdi’s graphic work is phenomenal! It really added a powerful message to Kick the Moon.

Rating – 

Thank you to MyKindaBook (Macmillan Children’s Books) for sending me an e-copy in exchange for an honest review. 

As part of the tour, Muhammad has been answering questions and this is mine:

Ilyas is an aspiring comic book artist in Kick The Moon, how important do you think diversity is in fiction, films and comic books? Do you think there is a lack of representation and if so what do you think the affect is on the younger generation? 

I think it is so important for every child to see themselves reflected in works of fiction so that they can believe becoming a hero is within their grasp. Lack of representation can lead to low self-esteem and worst case scenario: self-loathing. Stopping a child from dreaming is just about the worst thing you can do.

I want to see ‘own voices’ characters hailing from all backgrounds as role models for the younger generation. But I also want to see minority characters allowed to be as flawed and imperfect as their white counterparts without judgement. Inclusivity is about celebrating both our differences and our similarities and saying it’s OK to be different and it doesn’t make you less of a person.

About Muhammad Khan

Muhammad Khan is an engineer, a secondary-school maths teacher, and a YA author. He lives in South London and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing at St Mary’s. Muhammad takes his inspiration from the children he teaches, as well as his own upbringing as a British-born Pakistani. He has written two novels for Macmillan Children’s Books: I Am Thunder, which was one of the most highly anticipated YA debuts of 2018, and Kick the Moon.