John Jude Parish decides to postpone attending Brown and focus on surfing, skateboarding and exploring his own academic agenda.  His mom, Barbara, helps him develop a reading list as a compromise.  By August, he is already behind, choosing focus on surfing and skateboarding.  An accident changes everything.  John spends time exploring religions and finds himself corresponding with an Islamic girl from Brooklyn.  He decides to attend school to study Arabic which leads him on done a path unlike anything he or his parents planned or imagined.  Pearl Abraham writes a thought provoking story about decisions that seem insignificant at the time but when combined together change the course of one young man's life.

When I glanced at the title of this book, I thought I knew what I was getting into.  I had no clue.  American Taliban is so much more than just the story of an American kid who ends up joining the Taliban.  John Jude is a superb literary creation: the smart, generous, open-minded teenager that every parent would be proud to raise.  Well-written to the point where you can't put the damn thing down, American Taliban is empathetic, enlightening, and frightening all at once, a story that not only opens your eyes but gives you ideas to learn from, viewpoints to argue with.  it is a rare delight to be given a novel that actually makes you think, rarer still to have a book utterly rip open your heart.  American Taliban is that rarest of accomplishments, one that does both at the same time. 

~from the back cover, Charles Bock, author of Beautiful Children