This 32 page picture book for preschool and up is silly and fun.  There is nothing Islamic in the text or illustrations by this Muslim author, but there is Arab culture as it mentions molokhiya and zaatar. The large 8.5 x 11 hardback book is wonderfully illustrated with detail, color and expression.  The playful font and text makes reading it fun and enjoyable for little ones, who will get the message, and laugh along the way.

Noura loves watermelon. She eats it in the morning and in the afternoon and in the evening too.  At dinner she doesn’t want to eat her chicken, rice and molokhiya, she just wants watermelon. 

That night after dinner she sneaks to the kitchen, sees a huge watermelon on the table, and decides to take it up to her room to enjoy all by herself.  She puts the watermelon under her bed, and dreams wonderful watermelon dreams.

The watermelon gets bigger and bigger, and there is a door! She goes inside the watermelon and eats until her hearts content.  But as she gets bigger, the watermelon gets smaller.  She is trapped and her tummy is hurting.  

Her mother rushes in to find a watermelon under the bed and Noura screaming from a bad dream.  Resolved to deal with the magic watermelon in the morning, Noura goes back to sleep having learned her lesson (without being reprimanded), and happily eats her breakfast of a fried egg and zaatar.  

The book concludes with some information about watermelons and info about molokhiya and zaatar.