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July 7, 2018 / Jessica

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← Review—My First Quran with Pictures Juz Amma Part 1 by Shereen Sharief and illustrated by Nicola Anderson

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“Practising faith is like opening a door and realizing your life so far has been lived in a broom cupboard in the mention of existence. Reality actually lies beyond and underneath the nuts and bolts, the brooms and cloths of the material world.” . 📚Book Review📚 Finding Peace in the Holy Land is a memoir by Lauren Booth, who is probably best well-known as Tony Blair’s sister-in-law. Beginning with her hilarious upbringing, and cycling through her life as an actress, a political activist, and then a journalist and humanitarian, it is ultimately the story of how she came to Islam. Booth has a lovely sense of humor, and her writing is as spontaneous and vivacious as she herself is. Her sharp descriptions of the landscape in Palestine (“a building decorated in the local flavor; bullet holes”) and her narrative flair (“It was excellent advice. Advice I would completely ignore”) were a pleasure to read. The turning point of her narrative is in the holy land, where she comes to terms with her prejudice, her views on women and family, and her assumption that the main story in the holy land is Christianity. . This book is a beautiful reminder of how Allah leads people to Islam in different ways. Booth spent a considerable part of her life feeling conflicted about her materialistic lifestyle at home and struggling to advance humanitarian causes abroad. She found herself drawn to Palestine again and again. And it is there, during the month of Ramadan, that the generosity of a Palestinian woman is what finally opens her heart to Islam... This review is continued on the blog. Link in profile. Thank you to @kubepublishing for sending me a copy of this book. #laurenbooth #memoir #muslimmemoirs #revertstories #britishmuslim #muslimbooks #muslimbook #muslimauthor #muslimauthors #muslimjournalists #muslimreads #palestine #kubepublishing

📚Book Review📚 I’m sorry to say that I did not get on at all with the very popular She Wore Red Trainers, by Na’ima B. Robert. It’s a YA contemporary novel about Ali and Amirah, two Muslim teens living in South London. They each have “a past” but are both committed to practicing Islam the best way they can. The main plot is the romance between them; other topics are family issues and career choices. Some good things: ▪️This book is a great example of how Muslims of the opposite gender can get to know each other without dating. This is always an idea that mystifies people that didn’t grow up around it, and this book demonstrates a successful example of that beautifully. ▪️I really appreciated the inclusion of a deaf character. Muslims with different abilities do exist, but our literature rarely recognizes that. ▪️I liked seeing teen characters considering a wide variety of non-traditional paths after high school. Some of what I found less successful: ▪️The chapters alternate between Ali and Amirah’s first person narrations, but their voices were unfortunately not strong enough to make the transitions easy. I had to actively look for clues each time to figure out who was speaking. ▪️While I did appreciate seeing characters practicing Islam, I thought the way it was done in this book was too heavy-handed. I found unrealistic the way characters were constantly discussing their faith-related motivations so openly and “correctly." ▪️Zayd (Amirah's brother) was a really difficult character for me to stomach. I got genuinely angry in some of his scenes. I found the way he was constantly preaching at and being “protective” of Amirah overbearing and even demeaning. (I'm all for unlikable characters, but this aspect of Zayd’s behavior is presented as an imperfect personality trait that shouldn't get in the way of his overall endearing-ness.) ▪️Even though the faith interpretation in this book is close to the one that I myself follow, it was taken for granted that that is the only interpretation available, and that bothered me. If you’ve read She Wore Red Trainers, let me know what you thought. Especially if you loved it, what did you like best about it?

📚 Book Review 📚 . ⭐⭐⭐ . The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters is an adult contemporary novel by Nadiya Hussain, who won The Great British Bake Off. It's a story about a Bangladeshi family living in the English countryside told from the alternating points of view of the four daughters. This book was just okay for me. . ▪️The characters were almost caricaturish in the way they fit into neat little boxes, each fulfilling a role: the rebellious sister, the nurturing sister, the trendy sister, and the insecure sister. . ▪️There was way too much going on in the plot. . ▪️And it all tied up too neatly at the end with a unrealistic resolution to one of the biggest conflicts. There is another installment about the Amir sisters coming out in the US in January. I might pick it up just to see what happens to these characters next. I might not. 🤷 #muslimauthors #muslimauthor #muslimbook #muslimbooks #bangladesh #diversebooks #thesecretlivesoftheamirsisters

So pleased to find hijab representation in We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins. . I was already prepared for this adorable book to be my new favorite picture book of the year, so finding a hijabi student seated next to a little boy in a yarmulke was just the icing on the cake. ♥️ . Thank you for your commitment to diversity and inclusivity @ryan_t._higgins @disneybooks #kidsbookstagram #picturebook #picturebooks #wedonteatourclassmates #ryanthiggins #disneybooks #weneeddiversebooks #diversepicturebooks #hijabirep #hijabrepinkidsbooks

“Everything about me—my face, my fashion—had become political. There was a time when my presence only confused people; I used to be just a regular weirdo, the kind of unfathomable entity that was easily disregarded, easily discarded. But one day, in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy, I'd woken up in the spotlight. It didn't matter that I was just as shaken and horrified as everyone else; no one believed my grief. People I'd never met were suddenly accusing me of murder.” . I really enjoyed this YA contemporary romance by @taherehmafi about what it means to be visibly Muslim in a post-9/11 world. Shirin is a high school student who is a victim of constant microaggressions because of her race, her religion, and her hijab. This book has: ▪️Fantastic character development ▪️Commentary on social justice and gender politics ▪️A harsh indictment of high school ugliness (cliques, social strata, jock culture, etc.) ▪️Romance ▪️Breakdancing Full review up on the blog. Link in bio. Who else has already read this? What did you think? #averylargeexpanseofsea #avleos #harpercollins #taherehmafi #YA #YAbook #YAbooks #YAcontemporary #YAromance #muslimauthors #muslimauthor #muslimreads #bookreview #bookblogger #bookbloggers #bookstagram #racism #islamophobia #microaggressions #post911 #911 #muslimshelfspace #ownvoices #weneeddiversebooks

☁️ Book Review ☁️ . Zaid has been looking forward to his uncle's annual camping trip and is really disappointed when it gets cancelled. He spends the night feeling bad about missing out, and when he wakes up the next morning, he finds a gray cloud above his head. At school, his bad day keeps getting worse and worse - winter is coming, he has to sit at the back of the bus, and on and on. And the gray cloud grows bigger and bigger. . Eventually, Zaid performs an act of kindness, and his cloud shrinks a little. He spends the rest of the day re-evaluating all those things that seemed so bad that morning. Each time he's able to see something in a more positive light, his cloud shrinks a little. . I love how creative this book is. The cloud as a physical manifestation of negativity is such an apt metaphor. Our negativity colors the rest of our impressions. And I love the way Zaid was able to break out of that cycle by helping someone else - a powerful message about service and generosity of the self. . Something else that this book does that I'll never tire of cheering about - it shows Muslim characters doing everyday kid stuff and tells a beautiful story without preaching. Yay @ruqayas.bookshelf ! . Do you have this book? What other children's books have you read that include Muslim characters and talk about navigating big feelings or other self-development topics? . . . . #picturebook #picturebooks #helalmusleh #sabrinapichardo #zaidandthegiganticcloud #muslimreads #muslimkidslit #kidsbookstagram #ruqayasbookshelf #bigfeelings #selfdevelopmentforkids #diversepicturebooks

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