The search is on for an eid dress that reflects Zara’s African American Muslim culture. This much needed representation highlights more of looking for a dress and the process of having one made, than providing information about Eid or the African American Muslim experience over its 30 pages. Iftar is mentioned on one page in parentheses, so if you omit that word it could reflect either Eid preparation. The book is cute if you are looking for a slice of life and coming together of a child, mother, and grandmother over the creation of a dress that has what Zara is wanting: pink, fluffy and containing flowers. It falls short if you are looking for a book to learn about Eid, Ramadan, what a cultural African American Muslim dress would look like, or a peek into an under represented culture. The illustrations are sufficient. I felt the girl looked younger in some of the depictions, and I was surprised that the girl’s rain boots and clothes were worn over multiple days in her search for a dress, picking out fabric and inside her house when the dress is completed. Similarly, on Eid day while her dress is stunning and fabulous, her friends are wearing the same eid clothes they wore at the start of the book from years past.
Zara has worn a salwar kameez from Pakistan with her friend Sana, an abaya like her friend Noura one year too, but this Eid, she wants a dress that shows “her own style, her heritage, a reflection of her culture as an African American Muslim. As her mom is preparing iftar she asks when they can start shopping for her Eid dress. She knows it won’t be easy to find and convinces her mother to start looking this weekend.
She pulls on her rainboots as they head out the door to find “something bright, pink, fluffy, and has flowers on it.” They go to several stores and kind find anything just right. Her mom suggests asking Nana to make it. Zara’s mom recalls the fabulous dresses her mom used to make her to wear on Eid.
Nana and Zara head out to the fabric store the next morning. First they find the pattern, then they find the fabric. After a few days of hard work for Nana, the dress is complete.
On Eid day, Zara meets up with her friends in her dress that is uniquely her own.
I think the illustrations in this 40 page picture song book are my favorite of the new 2021 books. They are adorable and expressive and a big part of the story that the text alludes to, but doesn’t detail. They also are a big part of the activities at the end of the book that encourage children to go back and find different Ramadan and Eid concepts to discuss and further understand. I absolutely love that there is a glossary and a reference page that details and attributes the hadith implied in the simple sing song-y words. The chorus is to the tune of jingle bells, and while I struggled to maintain the rhythm, the chorus reappears and if you are able to sing the book, your children will love it even more, haha, my voice and lack of rhythm forced me to read it, but either way it is absolutely delightful and informative for toddlers and up.
The real treat of the book however, is how it all comes together: the words, pictures, sentence structure, font, size, and diction all compliment each other on the same level. I read a lot of books aloud as a children’s librarian, and while the rhyming ones are great for the littlest listeners, there is often a void of read-out-loud stories for the kindergarten and first grade levels. And I am talking about all books, not just Islamic ones. Most picture books in my experience are written on a third grade level, with longer blocks of texts, smaller fonts, a wider range of vocabulary and longer sentences. These books are often beautiful and very tempting, however when I read them during story time I end up “summarizing” them, and telling the story rather than reading it. Similarly, early readers often find them frustrating and too difficult to read independently. Bismillah Soup strikes a wonderful balance, mashaAllah.
Islamic School Librarian 