The English Language Arts (ELA) Honor Society, a national organization for middle school students and teachers aimed at elevating ELA achievement in grades 6-9, chose Internment by Samira Ahmed as its 2025-26 Big Read. Every year, the ELA Honor Society selects a new Big Read, which aims to allow students and instructors to “focus their reading on a single, challenging but rewarding, text, developing students’ critical and literary analysis skills.”

The 2019-released Internment book, according to author Samira Ahmed’s website, “gets at the heart of the terrifying state of our politics.” The book details the fictional journey of Layla Amin, forced into an internment camp for Muslim-Americans alongside her parents. Throughout the book, Layla leads a revolution inside the internment camp.

The book is set in a “near-future United States,” according to the ELA Honor Society. Within the first two pages of the book, the setting is described as two and a half years since the election, eighteen months after the Muslim Ban. The president in the book, who carries out the forcible interment of Muslim-Americans, is described by the protagonist as speaking about “America First” and “how he will make it all great again.”

Reviews of Internment–included on author Samira Ahmed’s website–describe the young adult novel as “‘Taking on Islamophobia and racism in a Trump-like America’”, offering “‘A reminder that in a world filled with divisions and right-wind ideology, young people will rise up and demand equality for all.’” PBS News Hour reviewed that Internment offers “‘understanding [to] the extreme dynamics of race in America from a Muslim perspective’”.

The ELA Honor Society Chapter Advisors voted for this book, citing that “‘Internment focuses a lot on the world as it is today; It offers a non-white perspective of how the US treats ‘outsiders’ and the history of censorship.’”

The ELA Honor Society is a program of English Honors Societies, the umbrella organization housing Sigma Tau Delta (the undergraduate and graduate English honors society), Sigma Kappa Delta (for two-year college students), and National English Honor Society.

The newest addition to English Honors Societies is the ELA Honor Society, launched in 2024 with the hope “nurturing their [students’] emerging talents in reading, writing, speaking, and critical thinking.” English Honors Societies simultaneously recognizes that middle school “represents a pivotal movement for building confidence and academic identity.”

The ELA Honor Society vows to abide by the National English Honor Society (NEHS) Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This statement from the NEHS “encourages student members and Chapter Advisors to challenge social constructs” around items such as “gender”, “gender identity”, and “sexual orientation.”