I know, I know another book by Rukhsana Khan, but really how great is she. She writes books with religious references sometimes, cultural ties sometimes, and sometimes just fun books. I love that kids of all backgrounds associate her with good stories, and that she hasn’t limited herself to just one demographic. 
Bedtime Ba-a-a-lk has no religious or cultural connections and is just about a girl dealing with rogue sheep in her mind that don’t want to be counted. The AR level is 2.6 but I don’t know that 2nd graders and below would really “get” the story. The vocabulary is great, with a little assistance: balk, conjuring, deliberate, snub, mutiny, haunches, eider-down, furrowed, etc.. And the concept of a girl creating her imaginary dream world and conversing with the characters in it, is grand, but I look forward to testing out which age groups grasp it, and which ones just think it is a funny story with an obstinate ram.
The book is 30 pages and beautifully, playfully illustrated. The pictures are just “fuzzy” enough to give a sleepy feel, and bold enough to stretch the imagination. The lines do not rhyme, but flow easily. The font is large and inviting, and well placed on the page. The book is clean, and the girl in her pleading with the sheep uses “please” and good manners in her firm demands. It does use the word, stupidly and darn, once each, but overall a silly fun read.
I really like how when discussing Jannah, they talk about the rivers of milk and honey, and I absolutely loved how they talk about Grandpa (hopefully) being in Jannah and being young and strong. I couldn’t figure out why when in the woods and marveling at nature the characters didn’t use Islamic expressions like, mashaAllah, subhanAllah, and inshaAllah, and when I read it aloud I had to add them when we got to the pages about Grandpa. It seemed awkward not too. The book is clearly for Muslim children, there is a reference page in the back with the ayats from the Quran and hadeeth that tell us about Paradise, and the characters are discussing an Islamic concept, so I’m not sure why their language isn’t reflective of that.
Nadia’s aunt is getting married and she gets to be the flower girl in the Pakistani-American wedding. She also will get mehndi put on her hands for the big event. Her cousins warn her that she might mess up and even in the midst of her excitement she begins to worry what the kids at school will say when they see her hands on Monday. As her aunt prepares the mehndi and the application process begins, various uncles peek in on her and her aunt gifts her a beautiful ring. The mehndi has to sit on the skin for a while to set and as Nadia practices sabr, patience, I couldn’t help but think something seemed off in the story. I’ve been at, in, and around a lot of Pakistani and Pakistani-American weddings, and this story didn’t seem to reflect the tone of such occasions. The book doesn’t reflect the hustle and bustle and near chaos, it doesn’t sound like the tinkle of jewelry and laughter as the women sit around chatting and getting mehndi put on together, the pots on the stove are referenced but not described so that the reader can smell the sauces thickening and hear the pans crashing and taste the deep rich flavors. It is lonely. Nadia is lonely and filled with anxiety about Monday. Durring the wedding she is walking down the aisle and suddenly freezes when she looks down and doesn’t recognize her hands. Her cousins seem to show unsupportive “I-told-you-so” expressions as she searches for some comforting encouragement to continue on. When she finishes her flower girl duties, her grandma asks if she understands why looking at her hands makes her feel like she is “looking at my past and future at the same time.” Nadia doesn’t understand and the author doesn’t explain. At the end she is ready to embrace that her hands are in fact hers and that she will show her friends on Monday. But the reader has no idea how it goes, or what exactly the significance of her painted hands are. The book fails to give any insight or excitement for a culture bursting with tradition at a time of marriage.
Islamic School Librarian 