Tag Archives: collection

Jan24

Ramadan on Rahma Road: A Recipe Storybook by Razeena Omar Gutta recipes by Faaiza Osman illustrated by Atieh Sohrabi

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Ramadan on Rahma Road: A Recipe Storybook by Razeena Omar Gutta recipes by Faaiza Osman illustrated by Atieh Sohrabi

 

I would not know where to shelve this 40 page in a library, it has beautiful pictures, it is informative, resourceful, useful, and interesting- I’ve only delayed sharing it because I really have had to think, how best to use this book to its maximum potential, to make it truly effective. It is formatted externally as a picture book, but it reads much like an chapter book anthology with the stories connected by the road the diverse folks live on, Rahma Road, all coming together for a communal iftar, with some fasting and some not.  The spreads feature vignettes on the left of what each house is making, including tidbits of culture, facts about Ramadan, insights about method or ingredients, with the facing page being the recipe.  The book is incredibly meticulous and intentional in appealing to Muslims and non Muslims alike, as well as a variety of ages.  It works as a book for Muslims to see themselves in, non Muslims to get a peek at iftaar excitement through, messages about community and diversity celebrated, foodies to see new recipes that they can try, cultures to explore through food and native words, a story framing to feel connection, I really could go on and on with the layers and inclusions this book provides, alhumdulillah.  I think the best way to use and share the book is going to be for me to read it with my 5 and 9 year old children a week or so before Ramadan.  Where I can read the story portion, getting us excited for Ramadan, slipping in some reminders, appreciating Islam’s global presence, and then talking about the recipes so that they can pick dishes to try in Ramadan and add needed ingredients to the shopping list (I wish I made the effort to be this organized all year long).  I then will plan to leave the book out and have my teens flip through to find any recipes that they think sound good and will commit to making.  The book would work all year long, but as a new release, I’m sharing my plan with hopes that it can help your family as well. 

The book contains 25 globally inspired recipes, featuring 11 with accompanying stories.  I absolutely love that at the bottom of the recipes are page numbers for additional items that would pair nicely, or be condiments or beverages or desserts for the dish.  This allows easy personalization, fusion meals, and more importantly a way for different age groups to be able to help each other in the preparation.  Maybe koshari is a bit advanced for your kid, but the mint lemonade paired with it might be something they can tackle a bit more independently. 

The framing of everyone on the road coming together book ends with the neighbors sharing a meal at the end,  I love the backmatter explaining Ramdan, about the recipes, even about Rahma Road.  The message to the reader and the naming of consultants really is a credit to the time and effort put into this book.

A few of the dishes and countries featured are: Atayef from Palestine, African American Sweet Potato Pie, Nigerian Puff Puff, Japanese Temaki Sushi, Morrocan Harira, Uyghur Lamp Stir-Fry, Guatemalan Dobiadas, Turkish Chicken Gozleme, Malaysian Teh Tarik, Australian Mini Strawberry Pavlovas, South African Bunny Chow, Mexican Elotes  .I can’t wait to report back if my plan was successful, if the dishes prepared were a hit, and ideas for further maximizing the use of the contents it contains.

Aug27

Prayers of My Youth by F.S. Yousaf

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Prayers of My Youth by F.S. Yousaf

I enjoy poetry, but don’t feel qualified to review it.  I saw the first few sample pages of this collection though and felt compelled to give it a read, and while I can’t confidently remark on the literary components, intellectual depth, or even symbolic power; I can say that I enjoyed the pieces.  I saw myself in many of the verses, felt a kinship to the author’s autobiographical musings, and often paused and reread lines, seeing glimpses of my own reflection staring back at me.  At other places, and on numerous other pages, though I truly had no idea what was being said, what the author was trying to convey, and why the details at hand were being discussed.  The former teacher in me, wanted to break down the poems, find the meaning, and write a thesis statement to organize the individual reflections, and overall story arc being conveyed, but truly, I am not qualified, and at it’s core, I do believe poetry should be felt.  I love that Islam is so present, that the symbolic and the real interweave throughout the 112 sparsely filled pages.  The exploration of family, faith, and journey of life feels real and vulnerable.  The book is an adult read, I think older teens though might see glimpses of themselves as well, and find a solace in the poetry on the page that they can so intimately relate to. Aside from enjoying the read, and looking forward to receiving my preorder to thumb through, I don’t know that I have much insight to offer, sorry.

The book is divided into 4 sections: Ablution, Iqama, Salaah, and Salaam.  At each division there is a simple sketched drawing and a bit of a grounding paragraph of text.  From there the individual title poems range from a few stanzas to a page or more, standing alone but also connecting the ideas and themes that move the book forward.

The book releases next month and is available wherever books are sold.

May30

The Door Is Open: Stories of Celebration and Community by 11 Desi Voices: Hena Khan (Editor), Sayantani DasGupta, Reem Faruqi, Veera Hiranandani, Simran Jeet Singh, Supriya Kelkar, Rajani LaRocca, Maulik Pancholy, Mitali Perkins, Aisha Saeed, N.H. Senzai

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The Door Is Open: Stories of Celebration and Community by 11 Desi Voices: Hena Khan (Editor), Sayantani DasGupta, Reem Faruqi, Veera Hiranandani, Simran Jeet Singh, Supriya Kelkar, Rajani LaRocca, Maulik Pancholy, Mitali Perkins, Aisha Saeed, N.H. Senzai

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I cannot in good conscience at the current time support this book as a whole, as many of the contributing authors have not used their platform to speak up, spread awareness, and draw attention to the genocide occurring in Palestine. As recent South Asian history involves colonization, I find this silence deplorable, disappointing and shameful, we need to do better. That being said, I am reviewing the book none-the-less because a few of the authors have spoken out, some quite a lot, and I hope those that have remained silent, will speak out. Our voices have power, and while it feels like it might be too late to take a stand, it is not. Lives might yet be saved.

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The 328 page middle grade book is a collection of 11 Desi voices, four of which are Muslim (Hena Khan, Reem Faruqi, Aisha Saeed, and N.H. Senzai). All 11 are threaded together by a fictional community center that houses badminton games, ameens, cooking classes, dancing for Navratri, chess tournaments, spelling bees, celebrating an aqiqah, and everything in between. The majority of the stories are joyful with threads of overcoming stereotypes being a frequent mention in a book filled with different cultures, religions, and perspectives. Potential flags and triggers: there is mention in one story of domestic violence, there are a few hetero crushes and one same sex identifying boy who isn’t ready to discuss his attractions, there is ostracizing of a single woman choosing to adopt, and a few mentions of divorce. As with all anthologies some are better written than others, but as a whole the book is pretty consistent in spotlighting something specific to religion or Desi culture, and having a hobby or family conflict push the character to problem solve, find their voice, and then be supported in a happy ending.

My favorite story is N.H. Senzai’s piece, I might be bias seeing as I check her Instagram numerous times a day for Palestine updates, but her story, with the domestic violence mom and daughter surviving and flourishing, is powerful, on level, and memorable. Framed around a mom’s prayers, duaas, she named her daughter Duaa. Duaa is a gamer that tries to make her mom happy by helping with her catering business. When she helps set up for a domestic abuse banquet at the community center she faces what her and her mom overcame by leaving in the middle of the night, and starting over.

I’m not going to review each story, but I will highlight the remaining Muslim authored ones. Aisha Saeed’s story doesn’t have any Islam specific mentions, her story is set during a mehndi at the community center. Her khala is getting married to Brian and moving to Kenya, and she is not happy, throw in cousins who are still mad at her for ruining their furniture with chocolate last year, and Maha just wants to hide in the back and pout.

Reem Faruqi brings her characters together through old fashioned letter writing. Orchestrated by Rahma’s nani, second cousins who will be meeting for the first time at an aqiqah at the community center, start corresponding to get to know one another, and gripe about siblings. When they finally do meet, in matching outfits no less, the girls decide their siblings, like their favorite candy, can be both sweet and sour.

Hena Khan’s story brings everyone together for an ameen six years in the making. Halima has finally finished the Quran and the family is throwing a party. Halima wanted a carnival type party, mom wants a formal affair, but when the community center is on the brink of being closed down, the family decides to invite everyone to show what the center offers the community.

Jun16

The Grimoire of Grave Fates by Hanna Alkaf and Margaret Owen

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The Grimoire of Grave Fates by Hanna Alkaf and Margaret Owen

I keep saying I won’t read anymore anthologies or collections, but this 464 page YA fantasy mystery intrigued me because each chapter is written by a different author, presenting a different character to unravel a whodunit.  In total there are 18 character perspectives, 18 authors, and one murder that needs to be solved.  With two Muslim authors included and it created by a Muslim writer, I hoped there would be some Islamic representation.  The list of authors is quite diverse, and I think every character presents some minority label to normalize a specific culture or identity.  The Muslim characters both wear hijab, but nothing more about their religion is mentioned and no other faith is included.  There are Black, Asian, Hispanic characters, and every letter of LGBTQ+ is highlighted and seemingly the focus of the book.  At times it is just attempted normalizing that a character is queer or gay, but other times it is central to the plot such as when two girls spending the night together provides an alibi, and a few times it really takes away from the story, for example at one point two boys (one magical, one neutral) kissing and falling in love.  There are gender fluid, non binary, pronoun preferences, trans male-to-female, female-to-male characters as well. I kept reading to get to Hafsah Faizal and Karuna Riazi’s chapters, which were 10 and 12 and by then I was so close to the conclusion, I just finished.  Some chapters are stronger than others, but the resolution was really anticlimactic and didn’t do the buildup justice.  I share this review not just to comment on the story, but to also give a heads-up to the content so that you can decide if the book is suitable for you and your children.  I would not shelve this book in our Islamic school library, which is unfortunate, because I think even with the weak ending, I like the theoretical storytelling concept.

SYNOPSIS:
In moving school for magical students, a murder has been committed, and the students who all feel like they are the “chosen one” are determined to solve the case.  The characters share what they know and add to the “solving” of the case for the reader with their different magical abilities.  Some of the students are werewolves, some necromancers, there are those whose dancing is magical, others whose embroidery is, a few are the same, many are unique.  They don’t compete with one another so much as they are in their own world trying to prove their worth and right to belong.  When a homophobic, racist teacher “dies” secrets are uncovered and dirty administrators are called to account.

WHY I LIKE IT:

I like seeing a glimpse of the action from a character and then not really seeing that character again, it made it seem more puzzle-like in the coming together of the clues.  I also liked it because if I didn’t particularly like a character or writing style, it didn’t last the duration of the book.  I wish it didn’t feel so token representation though.  If the goal was to be inclusive, the mirroring uniqueness was lost when each character seemed to have to tick a box.  It made it read formulaic.

The conclusion just unraveled, and I know mysteries and horror stories tend to fall in to this trap, but I was hoping it would go out with a bang.  The buildup was strong, but then it became a lot more just telling, then sleuthing, and I don’t know if it was a reflection of the individual authors, or the overall arc of the book.  Either way, I felt like it could have concluded with a bigger punch and wrapping up of some of the loose ends.  Hanna Alkaf didn’t have a chapter, presumably she wove it all together and made it flow cohesively with the internal memos and emails and notes.

I wish the two “Muslim chapters” would have had some more representations about Islam or the girls’ cultures influencing their magical style or goals, but with token rep it is often just a label, an identifier, and then nothing more.  The two connect over fear of Islamophobes blaming them for the death of their teacher.

FLAGS:

The focus of the book is largely on relationships, mostly LGBTQ+ but some hetero crushes as well.  Trans, non binary, gender fluid, bullying, racism, prejudice, murder, magic, lying, sneaking. The Muslim characters do not have crushes or romantic relationships mentioned, but one has a close male identifying gay friend that she does have physical contact with, a reassuring hug- so the book does have Muslim girls with close male friends. Fear of Islamophobia, stereotypes.

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

I would not be able to teach this book or shelve it in an Islamic school.

May30

The Wonders We Seek: Thirty Incredible Muslims Who Helped Shape the World by Saadia Faruqi and Aneesa Mumtaz illustrated by Saffa Khan

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The Wonders We Seek: Thirty Incredible Muslims Who Helped Shape the World by Saadia Faruqi and Aneesa Mumtaz illustrated by Saffa Khan

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I’ve noted over the years how much I want to love these type of collections, but ultimately I just don’t.  The reason I gave this one a try was quite simply the reassuring introduction.  The book immediately detailed the checklist required to make it into the book, the criteria required, and acknowledged the limitations that the book overall, and personalities included, would have in the presentation. There are sources at the end for each of the 30 people included as well.  Unlike most books in the genre, this book got out in front of my most common complaints: the lack of transparency for how the people were selected, where the primary source information was obtained from, how the order is organized, and the Eurocentric and pop culture framing that is both pandering and renders the book cumbersome a few years after it is published.  For the most part, this book is the best I’ve seen yet, but that isn’t to say I loved it.  While the requirements to be included were made apparent, there is still a lot of opinionated statements about how “religious” or “conservative” or “devout” or “mainstream” or “strict” a person is or was, that rubbed me the wrong way.  Also knowing that the person had to identify as Muslim to be eligible seems like a black and white issue, but a few of the personalities are very controversial (some noted and some not), and I am not an expert at all.  One of the problems with books like this is they present as non fiction, and no matter the transparency, just the mere fact of who is included and who is not is a judgement call and wrought with bias.  It is nice to thumb through, but I don’t know that it would get repeated use, or that it could really be used as a reference.  It is informative and I recognize that I went in to it very skeptical, but only a few text passages connected faith to the person’s accomplishments, and so while they identify as Muslim, it doesn’t necessarily radiate pride or admiration for Muslims as a whole.  For better or worse, if anything, it made me want to conduct my own research on many that were featured. 

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The 30 included in the book:

 

A few I was concerned by, which made me question the ones that I learned something new about. Clearly there are reasons that I shy away from non-fiction.  I wish the book would have had Muslim beta readers, I am willing to assume that it did not.  Take for example the section on Saladin, I absolutely get why his name is shown as both Saladin and Salah al-Din, the book is in English presumably for western readers and that is how he is known.  But why when it says that his real name is Yusuf, is Joseph in the parenthesis? No one else’s names in the book are given the English equivalents of their Arabic or Persian or other native language. Similarly so few tied back to Islam or an Islamic perspective being credited for having a role in their noteworthy accomplishments.  Even Muhammad Yunus when it discusses how interest was not a part of the micro loan process- it didn’t add even one more sentence explaining that interest is not allowed in Islam, why leave that out?  

I liked that the parameters required that the person was influential more globally than just to their own country, but Rebiya Kadeer seemed to be more localized in her work with Muslims in China even when she moved out of China, blurring the rigid standards of who was to be included and who was to be left out.  

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I do like that it mentions Rumi’s religion is often conveniently ignored as the west has made him a hero and chosen to forget his faith.  Similarly, I like that it tries to correct when Ibn Battuta is called the Marco Polo of Islam, for in reality Marco Polo was the Ibn Battuta of Europe.  And I appreciated that Benazir Bhutto was noted as being controversial and not well liked. 

If this type of book appeals to you, you can purchase it here.

 

Jan11

Amazing Women of the Middle East: 25 Stories from Ancient Times to Present Day by Wafa’ Tarnowska

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Amazing Women of the Middle East: 25 Stories from Ancient Times to Present Day by Wafa’ Tarnowska

img_7464A nonfiction picture book for teens that features amazing women from ancient times to the present day.  Many of the women featured are Muslim and each entry receives a teasing summation page with a full page portrait from one of five international artists before a two page, more in-depth biography is presented.  The 112 pages feature an introduction, and a map to start the book off, and acknowledgements and a glossary at the end.  There are large time gaps that I wish would have been commented on, the geographical pool includes India which surprised me, and in one of the entries the way hijab is discussed seemed judgmental to me, but other than that the stories are absolutely remarkable.  There are amazing women in every culture and throughout all time periods, but to see one that highlights a region that is stereotypically oppressive to women is a sight for sore eyes.  I learned so much and marveled at the intellect, bravery and determination shown from being rulers of empires to intellectuals to scientists and artists everything in between.

The book starts with Nefertiti born in 1370 BCE and concludes with Zahra Lari, a hijab wearing ice skater from the United Arab Emirates born in 1995.  There are “celebrities” such as Amal Clooney, Fairuz, Cleopatra, Sheherazade and many that might not be as well known.

I particularly enjoyed learning about Zenobia the 3rd century warrior queen who conquered a third of the Roman empire in just five years.  Sufi mystic and poet Rabi’a al Adawiyya and her devotion to Allah swt.  Eqyptian Shajarat al-Durr who was nicknamed Queen of the Muslims in the 13th century.  And Hurrem Sultan from the Ottoman Empire.

Not every one featured was a ruler or married to one, and not are so far in the past, which in many ways gives the collection it’s charm.  Somayya Jabarti was the first female editor-in-chief in Saudi Arabia in 2014 and  Maha al Balushi is the first Omani woman to fly professionally for her country’s airline in 2010, examples of two women presented that cracked the glass ceiling by following their own dreams.

It is great to learn about the strength of the women from the past and see how to add to the legacy.  The book is a great reference, as well as a source of inspiration for people of all backgrounds to enjoy and appreciate.  I found the book at my local public library in the YA/Teen nonfiction women section.