This slim, paperback book, is actually really sweet and colorful.  It doesn’t look like much at just 14 pages, but the minimal text conveys a good message of helping elders in the home, and can easily be extended to helping those in the community.  I think this is a great book for 3 to 5 year old.  Little ones will get ideas on what they can do, and new readers will feel accomplished when they turn the last page.

Little brothers, Muhammed and Musa, are waiting for their grandparents to arrive and are confused when their daddy reminds them to be helpful, since they are little and their grandparents are adults.  The parents explain how getting old is hard to the boys and give them ideas of how they can help.   Once they arrive, the boys spring in to action by helping them unpack, getting Grandma her walking stick, and even helping grandpa find his missing teeth.  They especially love when they help put out the prayer rugs for salat.

The pictures are simple yet well done.  The women wear hijab, not just the mom and grandma, but the doctor too.  Gender roles are depicted well too, the dad takes his parents grocery shopping, is shown helping in the kitchen, and serves the tea.

I really think if you have elder family, it is a great book to introduce what changes and what responsibilities the little ones can help with.  With my own children it was a good reminder and conversation starter that they need to keep toys off the floor so no one trips, they need to listen the first time to whatever they are asked by the elders to do, and that they need to sometimes even help them walk, or slow their gate.  If you don’t have grandparents in the home, it can extend to people at the mosque, with kids helping get chairs, or even at the grocery store in being mindful of holding doors open and helping return carts.