A friend loaned me this book from the local public library, so I was not only excited that a book about Eid was readily available, but also hopeful that it was good quality.  Then I saw the title.  I mean I get that the “Yippee!” is a title part of a series of books on the different holidays Muslim’s celebrate, but for as excited as Muslims are for Eid, they are usually very sad that Ramadan is over.

Nevertheless, I opened it up and hoped to be swept away.  The list of Eid activities and rituals however, were very dry and anticlimactic.  The characters are not named, the pages are meant for pre-schoolers I would imagine, but the lack of excitement in the language is disappointing.

There are 19 pages of text, and the first few pages start off pretty well with a little boy seeing the Eid moon.  Then the family goes to the mosque and learn that Eid marks the end of fasting and the month of the Quran.  The boys father then gives money to the mosque, it doesn’t say that it is charity, but if one is familiar with Eid, one could assume. However, the book seems to be for those unfamiliar with Eid, so for me, this is where the book started to be lacking.  The next page also is where the list seems to start, and some of the items on the list are a bit of a stretch.  “We hug family and friends,”  followed a few pages later by a whole page dedicated to “My mother sets the table.”

The book is also obviously desi as they eat parathas and firni.  At one point the kids play a game, not sure what game, it only says what sister’s favorite game is, and then a page is dedicated to the fact that “sister’s team wins.”

Perhaps I am too harsh, as the book is colorful and shows family and friends happily interacting.  There are women covered, not covered and with niqab, and there isn’t anything erroneous in what is written.  I just would hope for more.  The book is small in size, 8.5 x 8.5, and could have been fleshed out a lot more.  It reads like a child’s rough draft, each page or so, being a topic sentence, without the details.

I really don’t know what one would learn or get out of this book, that they wouldn’t get out of a fictionalized account or even a character driven story at Eid time.  Online prices don’t convince me the book is a stand out either.  There are much more fun, engaging, and memorable Eid books out there, not sure why the library chose to invest in this one, but alhumdulillah, I suppose it is better than nothing.