Tag Archives: mistakes

Mar26

It’s Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr! by Richard Sebra

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It’s Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr! by Richard Sebra

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Sigh, another erroneous children’s nonfiction book from a holiday book series targeting classrooms.  This 24 page book is meant for pre-school to first grade and in addition to being vague and repetitive, states that Muslims have a holy book that was written in Ramadan.  It never states the Quran by name, and clearly it wasn’t written, it was revealed in Ramadan.  It later also states that Eid al-Fitr is the last day of Ramadan, failing to acknowledge that it falls on the first of Shawwal, when Ramadan is over.  The table of Ramadan dates at the end spanning from 2016-2022 is also problematic if you are trying to explain that we often don’t know until the night before when Ramadan and Eid will be because we need to sight the moon.  These errors may appear minor, but when they seem to fill every recently published children’s nonfiction book, it really makes the correction of such assumed facts that much harder to overcome.  If our non-fiction books are so consistently flawed, our sense of reality is being shaped erroneously, and imagine what else we have consumed as fact that isn’t accurate over the years.  Please speak out when you come across these errors, in Islamic books and all non-fiction works.

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The book is filled with simple short sentence and often repeats the same basic information on multiple pages.  The two page spreads contain the text on one side and a realistic photograph on the other with critical thinking prompts to consider.

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It starts off by establishing that Muslims have a calendar based on the moon, that Ramadan is the ninth month and it is a holy month.  The next page again reasserts that Ramadan is not one day, but a whole month before introducing the idea that families get together to pray.  The erroneous page about the Islamic holy book follows and then the concept of fasting: not eating or drinking during the day is presented.  The critical thinking point asks readers to consider how fasting might change your day.

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There is then a page about prayer which includes that we kneel on rugs, pray everyday, but pray more in Ramadan.  I’m not sure why this page didn’t follow the page that first mentioned prayer, especially since the next page goes back to talking about food which probably should have followed the page on fasting.

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The page about Eid being on the last day of Ramadan is then followed by more sentences over a few pages about Eid being a festival, there being food, and gifts. There is a table of Ramadan dates at the end, as well as an index and books to further read.  There isn’t a proper glossary because there really isn’t any vocabulary presented  in the vague descriptions, but there is a picture glossary with words such as celebrate, dates, gifts, and prayers.

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Mar16

Eid al-Fitr: Festivals Around the World by Grace Jones

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Eid al-Fitr: Festivals Around the World by Grace Jones

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NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! Seriously, astagfiraAllah! This 24 page middle grades non fiction book about Islam and Eid published in 2018 with smart-board connections and QR scan media enhancements on its surface would seem to be a great classroom all-in-one to learn about the basics of celebrations, Islam, Ramadan, and Eid.  BUT, NO! The information is all sorts of off, and there is an illustration depicting Prophet Muhammad (saw).  How is this sort of ignorance even possible? This isn’t even a Karen Katz My First Ramadan depiction where you can possibly argue and stretch that it isn’t a depiction of the Prophet, but just of the people.  Every picture in the book is a photograph, except on the page talking about the first revelation, it is an illustration and there are no other people on the page, just a picture of the Quran.  I encourage you all to see if your public library shelves the book and ask them to pull it. ****UPDATE: My library pulled it, and the publisher has halted sales of it. Alhumdulillah! We must remember we can use our voices to make a differences, that people are receptive and willing, not always, but we won’t know unless we try.  ****

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The book covers nine topics on two page spreads ranging from the generic what is a festival, to what is Islam to prayer and worship and festival food.  The book has a little girl Noor that pops up on pages to tell you how to say a word and has a glossary with her definitions at the end.  Even the definitions at the end about the foods are wrong, they seem to have switched ma’amoul and sheer khurma.  To it’s credit the book has a photographs of a lot of diverse Muslims celebrating Ramadan and Eid, unfortunately so much is wrong, from little things saying that “Sheer Khurma is traditionally eaten for breakfast during Eid,” to “Muhammad spread Allah’s words to other people by writing them down in a holy book…”.  

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It has in quotes that a voice from the sky called to Muahmmad, “You have been chosen to hear Allah’s words.”  This quote and its source are nor footnoted or referenced, clearly they are not from surah Al Alaq.  I’m not sure where they are getting this from.  There are no salutaions after Rasulallah’s name nor is Prophet before it.

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Other informative sentences are vague and suggest misinformation.  It says that we believe in Allah and pray to him in a mosque, which yes is fine, but we also pray to him in other places five times a day and the way it is worded, I don’t think that would be understood.  I feel like the role of the imam is also overly elevated in the book.  The takeaway I assume would be that only an Imam can lead a prayer and we must always pray in a mosque.  

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Ultimately the biggest problem I have in the book is the depiction of our beloved Prophet.  I can forgive that they assume eating a random dish for Eid is religious and not just cultural, but I can’t forgive such basic ignorance in a book that presumably is trying to teach about a faith to reduce ignorance and misunderstandings.

 

Nov16

The Salams: Cranky Kareem Says Alhumdulillah by Kazima Wajahat illustrated by Chaymaa Sobhy

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The Salams: Cranky Kareem Says Alhumdulillah by Kazima Wajahat illustrated by Chaymaa Sobhy

 

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Part of me is tempted to channel my own Cranky Kareem and say how awful this book is, just because I know that the author reads my reviews of her books with bated breath, but alas I cannot lie even in jest as the book is truly adorable.  This 40 page book in a new series highlights and starts to fill the gap in children’s Islamic fiction that is so needed.  There are a number of books and series for toddlers teaching them to say Bismillah, Assalamualaikum, and MashaAllah and all the praise-filled Islamic expressions, but they are very basic, this book, and hopefully the rest of the series, goes a bit deeper.  It shows how to truly mean what you say, how to glorify Allah not just in your words, but in the way you think about things, handle stresses, and carry on.  The concepts and amount of text probably will most appeal to mature kindergarteners to early second graders at bedtime or in small groups.  I do wish that Cranky Kareem apologized to Happy Hamdi after he relentlessly attacked him at the masjid, but in much the way Oscar the Grouch gets away with being so negative, the characters in the book and the readers alike will have to settle for Kareem finally learning the lesson, in this case, of being grateful to Allah (swt) for everything.

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The book starts out with Happy Hamdi waking up in Salamville and praising Allah in appreciation of the fresh air, birds, flowers, and allergy medicine that works.  Across town Cranky Kareem is having the opposite kind of morning.  The sun is blinding, the birds annoying, coffee bitter, and he’s out of milk for his cereal.

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When Kareem finally finds some peace and quiet on a bench at the park he is disturbed by Happy Hamdi and all his happiness.  As Hamdi and bounces off to talk to Greedy Gamal and Healthy Hassan, Cranky Kareem gets an idea.

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When Happy Hamdi heads to the masjid, Cranky Kareem sticks out his foot to trip him.  Hamdi falls and gets a bruise on his nose, but still says Alhumdulillah. He then knocks sticky baklava on him and again he responds with Alhumdulillah, he then dumps a bucket of ice water on Hamdi, and Happy Hamdi says Alhumdulillah once more.  When he leaves the masjid, Hamdi’s car is not working and he has to walk home.

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Kareem can’t take it anymore and confronts Hamdi.  Happy Hamdi explains that he was hungry and didn’t mind the syrup, then the water washed the syrup off and now that he is walking home, his fur is drying.  Flabbergasted by Happy Hamdi, Cranky Kareem stomps off.

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Convinced that Hamdi’s happiness is an act, Kareem pauses to ponder how his plan failed.  Healthy Hassan jogs by and bumps in to him, knocking him off the train track and causing Kareem to twist his ankle, just before a train goes swooshing by.

Realizing that the bump saved his life, Cranky Kareem expresses his appreciation to Allah swt by saying Alhumdulillah.

I love the illustrations and the horizontal layout of the book.  The book is cute and I can’t wait to share the rest of the series with my kids.  Thank you to Crescent Moon Store for having this, and so many wonderful books available.

 

 

 

Apr5

Forgiveness by Isa Beaumont

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Forgiveness by Isa Beaumont

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This dual language book, is structured and feels like a leveled reader, but is more geared for fluent reading five to seven year olds.  It definitely has more complex diction and vocabulary than an emerging reader would be able to handle in English, I have no idea about the Arabic.  

SYNOPSIS:

The concept in 26 pages is how to forgive others and react calmly when we are upset.  The book is brightly illustrated on glossy sturdy softbound pages, and the characters are found in all of the company’s stories and plush figures at https://www.littlemaysoor.com/

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Little Zakariyyah has been behaving well, and as a result his mom gets him a new red toy car, he loves it and plays with it in the garden everyday. His sister Ruqayyah wants to play with it, he agrees and when he hands it to her, she accidentally drops it and it breaks.  In anger Zakariyyah begins screaming for her to “Go away from me!” Mom comes out to see what is going on and calm everyone down, she takes Zakariyyah inside and pours him some milk.  When she hands it to him, his hand slips and he drops the glass breaking it and making a mess. Mom forgives him and obviously highlights the similarities to what just happened with his sister and the toy car.  Mom then gently guides him to acknowledge his poor behavior and asks him what he things he should do.  Zakaraiyyah knows he needs to ask Allah swt for forgiveness and then apologize (apologise) to Ruqayyah.  Once he does this, his sister shares some sweets with him and reminds him of a hadith, “The strong one isn’t he who can overpower others.  Instead, the strong one is he who can control himself when he becomes angry.”

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WHY I LIKE IT:

Before the story begins there are six points you can implement before reading the story, and after the story, there are beginner and advanced concept questions and a place to write the answers provided.  The book has an agenda and it achieves its mark in showing a moral concept in an Islamic framework.

The book is written in British English which could make the spelling a bit confusing for new American readers, but manageable.  I honestly don’t know if the book was written in English then translated to Arabic or the other way around.  Some of the wording seems awkward so it could be attributed to it being translated from Arabic or it might just be the American/British difference.  For example Zakariyyah loves playing in “a small sand pit for children,” why not just say, sandbox? Again not terrible, but rationale for why I think children sounding out words might be a bit young for the target audience.  

I liked the story and how it lets the reader see the similarities to the events that unfold, just like I loved that the mom asked Zakariyyah what he should do, rather than dictate or scold him.  I was surprised when I read it, how smooth the ending was, because it really could have had Ruqayyah come across as a know-it-all and it didn’t.

The beginning of the book stumbled a bit with the set up trying to tell about Zakariyyah, why he got the toy and then staging the plot of the book.  If he had been playing with the car everyday, is it still a new car? Also the illustration before he drops the milk has him sitting at the table with a glass a milk in front of him.  Sure, maybe it was the second glass that he dropped, but it’s noticeable.

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FLAGS:

Clean

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TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

The book is obviously too short for a book club per se, but I think if you had a small group of readers, or are home schooling, you really could ask a child to read the book and then reflect back what they understood and what they learned and how they hope to put it in to practice.

Even with not reading the Arabic, the book is pretty solid in its approach and I plan to check out the other books in the series as I do a lot of story times with basic morals as themes.