Tag Archives: Disappointment

Nov5

Seven is Special! By Shagufta Malik

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Seven is Special! By Shagufta Malik

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I’ve seen this book on and off over the years, but it wasn’t until I saw @muslimkidsbooknook’s post about it, did it register that it is a chapter book, with a plot and story.  I thought it was a journal for seven year olds with prompts perhaps.  Needless to say I judged a book by its cover and hope at some point the author will consider changing the title, redesigning the cover, and tightening up the story, because there is a lot to enjoy in this book, but to get to it, you have to get it in your hands, and open the cover.  The doodles, the author’s voice, and the playful font over 128 pages will appeal to elementary aged girls, but boys will find plenty to relate to as well if you can convince them to give it a try.

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SYNOPSIS:

Seven-year-old Maryam has started taking her salat more seriously, and finally the family, her parents and her, are going on a REAL holiday.  They are going for Umrah.  Maryam is so excited, but then the trip gets canceled and her mom is sick, and Maryam is tired of always feeling different than her classmates.  Will everything work out? Will prayers and duas be answered? Will eight be great?

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WHY I LIKE IT:

I love that the book stays on a seven/eight year old level, but I do question how much stress is on how sick the pregnant mom is, and how kids will understand that.  I was sick, very sick, with all my pregnancies, and my older children saw me and it still affects them, in sometimes surprising ways.  My oldest daughter says she is never having kids.  Granted she is 14, but I would worry that reading a children’s book that mirrors something that was pretty traumatic for her to see will cement her impression about childbearing.  Obviously, I could be the exception, and perhaps like many literary mirrors it would make her relate more to the story.  I know she is above the target audience, but the illness of the mom is a large part of the book, and it is very detailed and specific.  I think if you are a young child reading it, you might ask your mom if that was her experience, and it could be a lovely conversation about heaven being at your mother’s feet, and the tests and blessings of it all, but the book really doubles down on some of the details of the throwing up and vomiting, and I wish her being sick could be shown in more situational ways.  Maybe she tried to do an activity with her daughter, but couldn’t, or she had to ask another mom to help with something she normally did at Maryam’s school, etc..  There are such wonderful tangible little nuggets in the book about salat at the park, and kids duas, and making wudu in public, that I think a little reframing of the illness and symptoms is definitely in the author’s skill set.

I love the unapologetic voice of being Muslim and some of the insecurities that Maryam faces and grows from.  Kids will enjoy seeing their concerns articulated, and inshaAllah benefit from her perspective as they make decisions about their own identity and attitude.  I know some families make a big deal about starting salat at seven, but when the book starts she has been seven for a while, so I’m not entirely sure why that was the focus of the book’s title.  Additionally, the pink cover really screams that it is a girl book, and I think boys will be nervous to be reading a “girl book,” that really isn’t gender specific in the storyline.  Yes, there are all sorts of stereotypes in that assessment, but I think you all get what I’m saying.

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FLAGS:

Illness, a bit of a temper bubbling over, stress.

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TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

I think young readers that are handed the book and start it, will finish reading it.  It is a super quick read, and with the drawings and conversational language, they will enjoy the pages as they fly by.  It is an elementary read, and anyone older will probably see the foreshadowing that the mom is expecting, while the second and third grade readers, will probably be genuinely surprised.

Jun2

Zaid and the Gigantic Cloud by Helal Musleh illustrated by Sabrina Pichardo

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Zaid and the Gigantic Cloud by Helal Musleh illustrated by Sabrina Pichardo

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We all experience disappointment and frustration and feeling like a gray cloud is weighing us down, and for Zaid, it really is!  In 36 bright colorful pages, children ages 5 and up can see that bad days happen to everyone, and that sometimes it seems like nothing is going right.

Zaid has been waiting for months for a weekend camping trip with his uncle and cousin, but when Ahmed comes down with the chicken pox, the trip is cancelled.  That night Zaid barely sleeps he is so upset, and in the morning notices a small grey cloud hovering above him.  As he waits for the bus, the autumn leaves remind him that it will soon be too cold to play soccer outside, then he has to sit at the back of the bus, and needless to say its just the beginning of many disappointments in his day, that make the cloud above him grow.  But then, a little something out of the ordinary, in the form of a small bird needing help, presents Zaid with a change of pace and a chance to turn his day around.  Slowly but surely the cloud starts to shrink and Zaid copes with the rest of the day with a bit of perspective and a growing smile.

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The book is a much needed one in showing children coping with emotions in a somewhat autonomous manner.  The book doesn’t judge his feelings, but shows how he finds a way to see the silver lining and make do with a string of frustrations.  The adults don’t lecture him or solve his problems for him, but are definitely supportive and caring should he need them.  The story does a good job of flowing and not getting preachy.  I can’t wait to read it to my 6-year-old who has a gray cloud pop up at the slightest disappointment, but currently my 10-year-old has been sent to her room with the book to see if she can relate Zaid’s predicament with her own.  The handy discussion questions at the end also can help talk about feelings through Zaid, and hopefully making the child’s connection from a fictional character to their own experiences more poignant.

This book really cemented in my head the growing subcategories of Islamic fiction picture books.  Naturally there are books that are geared for Muslim kids only and ones that work for Muslim and non Muslim kids alike.  But this book, along with a few of the new releases like it, cover universal themes with Muslim characters (at least by name) and have diversity in their pictures.  They show a few characters in hijab but do not mention or explain it, in this book the marshmallow package says halal, again with no explanation.  However, there is no specific ayat or hadith that the book stems from or an Islamic pearl that is meant to get through.  The characters do not greet each other with salam, or say alhumdulillah and mashaAllah, making it more appealing to a wider audience, but words I hope when the story is being read aloud to Muslim kids, can be sprinkled in.  I think it is a great addition to the literary world when Muslims are seen in a larger community and is not jarring.  I hope parents of non Muslim children also appreciate this diversity in literature and I pray that it leads to more acceptance in the “real” world, ameen.

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