
To be honest, I didn’t get the book. I mean I understand that it was derived from stories the author told his children, and I’m guessing it was written to show similarities between Muslims and Christians, but I don’t understand how the 168 pages with lots of photographs and text from the Qur’an got published as a book. That is not to say it isn’t without merit, it just leaves a lot to be desired. The teacher in me really, really, really, wanted to pull out a purple pen and start editing. I checked twice to see if I had an advanced copy or uncorrected proof, I even Googled the book to see what I was missing. It doesn’t work for me as a completed book. To me, however, it is a wonderful outline that is desperately wanting to be fleshed out.
SYNOPSIS:
A man in San Fransisco is sitting on the train when there is an earth quake, thus delaying his trip home. As he dozes off he imagines interactions with his children that share his knowledge of Islam with them, and thus the reader. The first interaction is with him and his young daughter discussing Christmas, and how Muslims view Jesus and the power of Allah the creator of all. They jump in the “time machine” truck and drive through the hills of San Francisco reflecting on the concept of patience. As Ramadan comes and the narrator dreams we get bits of how Muslims in America celebrate Ramadan, and some of the tenants of faith. When he is awake we get some story about his family, how he came to Islam and his Grandma passing away. But nothing is explained or even connected. I have no idea how many children he has, what the story is with the step children and the confusion from having two daughters with the same name. The story goes back and forth with his dreams being more “real” then his awake time, and both kind of moving in the same direction of explaining how Islam is practiced as a family in America (praying together, waking up for suhoor), the questions that arise from the children (how to pray at school, why Ramadan decorations don’t decorate the city), and how we are all more alike than different (same Prophets, similar stories). The final dream sequence is sweet with the father and daughter showing, not just talking, about giving and charity, that I really want to send the author back to finish writing the book. There are so many tangents that would give it depth that are stated in a few sentence paragraph that could so easily be developed in to whole chapters. Unfortunately, as is, the reader is just left disjointed and confused.
WHY I LIKE IT:
I really like the premise, I like the literary flip of telling the story in the dream. The ideas are just not presented smoothly. I don’t think that a tween would get it, and the choppiness of the ideas bouncing around from short paragraph to short paragraph would dissuade even the most seasoned middle school reader. The book has some good tidbits, but they are lost in the short glimpses of story and long passages of meaning of the translations from the Quran. The Arabic Calligraphy is nice, but it isn’t stop in your tracks beautiful, and the font of the English translations are difficult to read.
FLAGS:
None, the book is clean.
TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:
I tried to get my daughter to read it, but she was so lost and even asked if it was a collection of stories or a chapter book, that I couldn’t force her to finish. If you can get through it, one could discuss how to “fix” some of the struggles the book has, thus emphasizing what the reader liked and imagining the back story for all the questions that arise but are ultimately not answered.