Dr. Seema Yasmin–a queer Emmy Award-winning journalist, medical doctor, professor, and author–debuts her YA novel Unbecoming tomorrow!

Two Muslim teens in Texas fight for access to abortion while one harbors a painful secret in this funny and heartfelt near-future speculative novel perfect for fans of Unpregnant. In a not-too-distant America, abortions are prosecuted and the right to choose is no longer an option. But best friends Laylah and Noor want to change the world. After graduating high school, they’ll become an OBGYN and a journalist, but in the meantime, they’re working on an illegal guide to abortion in Texas. In response to the unfair laws, underground networks of clinics have sprung up, but the good fight has gotten even more precarious as it becomes harder to secure safe medication and supplies. Both Laylah and Noor are passionate about getting their guide completed so it can help those in need, but Laylah treats their project with an urgency Noor doesn’t understand—that may have something to do with the strange goings-on between their mosque and a local politician. Fighting for what they believe in may involve even more obstacles than they bargained for, but the two best friends will continue as they always have: together.

A Through-the-Alphabet Celebration of Queer History in the US, from the Publisher of the New York Times Bestseller The ABCs of Black History In a beautiful picture book brimming with P for Pride, writer and poet Seema Yasmin and illustrator Lucy Kirk celebrate all the joys and challenges of queer history in the United States through lively, rhyming verse and bright, colorful illustrations. This is a book of people, of ideas, of accomplishments and events. It’s a book about Allies and Ancestors, about Belonging and Being accepted, about Hope, Knowledge, and Love. About historic moments like Stonewall, and how it changed the world. And all about Trailblazers, like Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Josephine Baker, Harvey Milk, Barbara Jordan, George Takei, Elliot Page, and Sally Ride. And ultimately, it’s a book to help kids learn a different kind of ABCs—not just words like apple, ball or cat, but rather the essence of what it means to be diverse, to be equitable, to be inclusive. That no one counts unless we all count, and how we must open our eyes and ears, minds and hearts, to hear everyone’s story and understand and celebrate their experience.

From acclaimed writer, journalist, and physician Dr. Seema Yasmin comes a “savvy, accessible, and critical” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) book about the importance of media literacy, fact-based reporting, and the ability to discern truth from lies. What is a fact? What are reliable sources? What is news? What is fake news? How can anyone make sense of it anymore? Well, we have to. As conspiracy theories and online hoaxes increasingly become a part of our national discourse and “truth” itself is being questioned, it has never been more vital to build the discernment necessary to tell fact from fiction, and media literacy has never been more important. In this accessible guide, Dr. Seema Yasmin, an award-winning journalist, scientist, medical professional, and professor, traces the spread of misinformation and disinformation through our fast-moving media landscape and teaches young readers the skills that will help them identify and counter poorly-sourced clickbait and misleading headlines.

Dissecting the biggest medical myths and pseudoscience, Viral BS explores how misinformation can spread faster than microbes. Can your zip code predict when you will die? Should you space out childhood vaccines? Does talcum powder cause cancer? Why do some doctors recommend e-cigarettes while other doctors recommend you stay away from them? Health information―and misinformation―is all around us, and it can be hard to separate the two. A long history of unethical medical experiments and medical mistakes, along with a host of celebrities spewing anti-science beliefs, has left many wary of science and the scientists who say they should be trusted. How do we stay sane while unraveling the knots of fact and fiction to find out what we should really be concerned about, and what we can laugh off? In Viral BS, journalist, doctor, professor, and CDC-trained disease detective Seema Yasmin, driven by a need to set the record straight, dissects some of the most widely circulating medical myths and pseudoscience. Exploring how epidemics of misinformation can spread faster than microbes, Dr. Yasmin asks why bad science is sometimes more believable and contagious than the facts. Each easy-to-read chapter covers a specific myth, whether it has endured for many years or hit the headlines more recently.

Based on original reporting from West Africa and the United States, and the poet’s experiences as a doctor and journalist, If God Is A Virus charts the course of the largest and deadliest Ebola epidemic in history, telling the stories of Ebola survivors, outbreak responders, journalists and the virus itself. Documentary poems explore which human lives are valued, how editorial decisions are weighed, what role the aid industrial complex plays in crises, and how medical myths and rumor can travel faster than microbes. These poems also give voice to the virus. Eight percent of the human genome is inherited from viruses and the human placenta would not exist without a gene descended from a virus. If God Is A Virus reimagines viruses as givers of life and even authors of a viral-human self-help book.
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