Content Warning: This section of the guide refers to chronic illness, violence, death, racism, and Islamophobia.

Zayneb Malik’s and Adam Chen’s Marvels and Oddities journals are symbolic of self-expression. Both protagonists acquire and start their journals at crucial turning points in their adolescence. Zayneb starts her journal after discovering The Marvels of Creation and the Oddities of Existence ancient text when she is 16 and keeps “it going for the next two years, recording the wonders and thorns in the garden of her life” (2). Adam begins his journal after his mom dies and he discovers The Marvels of Creation and the Oddities of Existence manuscript at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha when he’s 14. The concept of recording the marvels and oddities of their experiences grants both Zayneb and Adam a way to engage with life’s unexpected joys and “the weird bits of existing” (1). The journals are especially significant to the protagonists, too, because they are both familiar with loneliness, isolation, loss, and pain. Zayneb’s grandmother’s violent death and the Islamophobia she faces at school ignite these challenges in her personal life. Adam’s mother’s death and his diagnosis with multiple sclerosis ignite similar challenges for him.