Having not liked the author’s YA books, I was on the fence about reading this, but when I saw it at the library I could hardly resist a Ramadan book about a girl visiting Bangladesh, wanting to be a journalist, and learning about climate challenges.  And alhumdulillah, the 304 page middle grade book is clean, Islam centered, and flag free.  Not so great though for me was the story craft itself.  I think it tried to do too much from a 3rd grade protagonist voice which resulted in a lot of telling, very little showing, and no connection to the characters.  My 10 year old read a few chapters, but couldn’t be persuaded to pick it up again as the plot is rather weak, journalism isn’t an exciting field to kids these days, there is no back matter explaining climate concerns, or flooding, or even a map of Bangladesh, and even he couldn’t understand why the book kept using the phrase, “first Ramadan,” even though it was just her first time fasting. I wanted to cheer Nadia on in her endeavors and her growth, the arc was there, I just never felt I got to know her.  Unfortunately, her voice and characterization were underdeveloped, resulting in her not being particularly relatable and likeable.

SYNOPSIS:

Nadia is planning to fast her first Ramadan with her best friend Yasmin, but a quickly decided trip to Bangladesh has her heading to her parents’ homeland for the first time to meet family members over her summer holidays.  Luckily her journalist aunt is going with them, and with Nadia’s sights set on being the editor-and-chief of her school paper, she is looking forward to learning what she can.  Her Khalamoni is working on a story about the flooding in the area, and Nadia tags along to interview a family that is helping care for the displaced families.  When she sees that even a kid not much older than her can make a difference, she is determined to spread light on the unreported environmental problems happening and their devasting effects.  All this is happening during Ramadan, and the heat of Bangladeshi summer, the length of the days, and the secret race Nadia and her cousins are battling in to fast the most amount of days, allows for Nadia and the reader to learn that Ramadan is more than just fasting.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT IT:

I really like that the story shows praying and reading Quran threaded in with the fasting, even if it is mostly just from the adults.  The arc of Nadia learning about self control and intentions is also nice to see.  It seems a little off that she has never even fasted a half day or part of a day before and that she has made being 8 years old and her first Ramadan such a landmark event.  In insolation, all of the story lines and the rep (see the pictures I’ve enclosed), sound great, but for some reason it just felt like it was too much and thus nothing resonated. So many concepts meant surface level details were all that the pages could address, and if it went deeper it felt like info dumping, resulting in no character connection between the fictional characters, or with the reader.

FLAGS:

Clean

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:
The book would be a solid teachable book so that the discussions could be fleshed out and understood with relation to climate change and the environment, geography, and news cycles.  I would love to see a kid pick it up and see it through to the end, but ultimately I don’t know what there is enough pull to keep most kids reading to see how the story pans out for Nadia if it wasn’t a required assignment in a classroom.