Giant spiders, pronoun shifts and reassurance: Naseem Jamnia’s new horror-fantasy novel aims to make tweens feel seen

Giant spiders, pronoun shifts and reassurance: Naseem Jamnia’s new horror-fantasy novel aims to make tweens feel seen

When one of the 12-year-old main characters in Reno author Naseem Jamnia’s new book, The Glade, says, “I guess I feel like an alien walking around humans. I’ve never belonged anywhere, you know?” it is clear that Jamnia knows the loneliness and anxiety that plague many tweens.  Jamnia’s compassion for nerdy, lonely kids makes for a sweet and uplifting novel—despite the giant spiders and oozing mushrooms the kids in the novel must battle. The boo…