Amira’s Totally Chocolate World is a sweet story based on the idea of a young girl’s wish for the world to turn into chocolate.  As she imagines all the wonderful things that would be made better by being chocolate: flowers, grass, rain, the ocean, etc., she asks Allah swt to make a totally chocolate world.  The night before Eid ul-Fitr her mom promises to make Amira a chocolate cake with chocolate icing in celebration of Amira fasting for a part of each day in Ramadan.  When Amira wakes up the whole world is chocolate, and Amira runs out to enjoy all the chocolate around her.  Soon enough she misses the colors of the world, and the different smells, and misses the texture of grass too.  Amira remembers an Ayat of the Quran about the many colors of creation and asks Allah to turn the world back to the way he created it.  Naturally her alarm clock then wakes her up and she is now wiser, more appreciative and happy to eat her chocolate cake on the kitchen table.

Overall, the story touches on ideas of Ramadan, Eid, asking Allah swt for everything and anything, being appreciative and being thankful.  However, when read aloud I have found that the students have to be made aware of these topics to grasp them.  The text is a bit wordy and the author’s message seems to get lost in the chocolate-ness of everything.  I feel like there is just too much going on in the 23 pages of the story for a child younger than 1st grade to get much out of independently.  On the surface however, it is a fun story with adequate illustrations that kids, especially those that love chocolate, will enjoy.

(NOTE: the book is written in British English, and American children are quick to notice the difference in spelling the word color/colour.)