In this Young Adult novel, JOSEPH NISSAN’S bar mitzvah kicks off a turbulent school year in 1979. Joseph’s parents immigrated to America from Iran, and the mystery of why is a problem for Joseph to solve in their Texas town. Joseph learns more about his parents, BABA and MAMAN, what it means to be an Iranian Jew born in America, and that people are not always what they seem, even the bullies.

It was easier for a brown kid to make friends with the Hispanics and learn Spanish in elementary school, but now that Joseph is in junior high, two neighborhood bullies, the Iranian hostage crisis, and a reverend’s beautiful daughter lure Joseph into taking risks that expose him to bigotry and racism.

The bullies think Joseph is Hispanic because his best friends are the YBARRA twins. Joseph finds a way to even the score when the gym coach invites Joseph to join the football team. Baba and Maman are reluctant, but they allow Joseph to play. They also are concerned about Joseph’s affection for piano-playing at the neighbor’s house, but Joseph’s childhood babysitter and piano teacher MISS ELEANOR is like a grandmother to him.

At Miss Eleanor’s, Joseph meets VONDA BAER, a preacher’s daughter, and they bond when he helps her with a difficult piano piece. Joseph is rebuffed by Vonda’s father, and Joseph and Vonda hide their affection. The townspeople discover that the Nissan family is Iranian during the hostage crisis, and Joseph must find new ways to cope at school and at home. The Ybarras intervene, challenging the Texas town to better behavior. Baba handles a face-down with Vonda’s father in an unexpected way, which unravels the mystery.

JUST A HAT fuses the humor of Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas with the serious questions of Potok’s My Name is Asher Lev. It is a close description of living as a minority of minorities in America. Joseph tries on new hats of family, friendship, and spiritual change without losing his mischievous humor.

Action-packed, humorous, and a little sad, JUST A HAT considers the challenges to immigrants, but more pointedly, second-generation children who find themselves “translators,” claimed and defined by two impossibly different cultures.