This beautiful book is a compilation of the lyrics from Dawud Wharnsby’s well known collection of songs found on the Colours of Islam CD released nearly 20 years ago.  The book states for ages 5+ and is a large and very colorful 35 pages.  The hardback binding, the inclusion of the CD, and the knowledge that royalties go to a trust fund supporting educational initiatives for children, make it a great gift item.  It looks lovely on the shelf and the children will eagerly thumb through it, once.  After that, I’m not entirely sure what to do with the book.  

The pictures are very busy for the most part, and very detailed.  The text on the page is pretty intimidating in its line length and volume.  The songs are lovely, I’ve knows them by heart since I was a child, but I don’t know that they lend themselves directly to poetry for children.  If a child knows the songs, or is following along with the CD then yes, older children will benefit from the book.  A five-year-old or possibly a 7-year-old will not.  I can see the poems/songs supplementing a language arts lesson in a classroom, and in a library the book looks wonderful displayed.  But, as hard as it is for me to not gushingly praise a Dawud Wharnsby product, I don’t know that the book would really ever be read cover to cover and/or more than once.