This book reads very much like an early work in progress. It doesn’t seem to know if it wants to be a book about foods and hunger in Ramadan, or about a Ramadan drummer waking people up for suhoor, or being a fantasy where you can hear people’s thoughts in your dreams and when you awaken you can get blessings for being kind. Sure maybe it could be all of the above, unfortunately as written, it falls short in being much of a cohesive story at all. Many of the details have no baring on the plot, the transitions from food, and fasting and pants feeling tight to dreaming about the Ramadan drummer that he heard about once in passing, is very abrupt and none of the children I read it to ages four to eight could sit through it. With no Islamic centering it is never clear other than to “think of the poor,” why this small child is fasting, and who is going to be doing the rewarding for kindness in Ramadan. For Muslim and non Muslim kids alike, this book will not make much sense, I’m afraid, nor be memorable, even if they can get through it. The idea of a Ramadan Drummer appears in a lot of books, and perhaps this fantasy reinterpretation could have been fun, but with the lack of Islamic content, a clear story line, and the focus being on hunger, the book doesn’t do much for me.
The book starts out with Adam being hungry, his stomach is a wild beast, roaring and grumbling for food. He is told fasting helps people think of the poor, but he can’t “think on an angry stomach.” The next two pages are about food, then his aunt and uncle come over, wishing everyone a “blessed Ramadan,” and then they break their fast. No Salams are given, iftar is not named, but they mention a Ramadan drummer. Adam is eating so much his pants are tight, they then pull out dessert. That night he can hardly fall asleep because he ate more cookies than he should. The lack of self control is an odd thing to stress without any insight into moderation, especially in Ramadan when controlling the nafs is such a present test.
That night he dreams he meets the Ramadan drummer, they listen to the wants and thoughts of the neighbors, he wakes up in the morning to pancakes and then he responds to what he learned in his dream. It is sweet that he spreads kindness to the neighbors, with the Ramadan drummer only having to tell him, “during Ramadan, every act of kindness is reward tenfold.” I have no idea if Adam is already kind and this was just extra motivation, it never says who will be doing the rewarding, I wish it shared what was being chanted to wake people up, and I wondered if this is going to be an every night occurrence, but alas there are no answers.
The book ends with Adam still hungry, but his heart being full whereas his stomach is not. There is then a lengthy Author’s Note that mentions “Muslims will not eat or drink from sunrise to sunset,” clearly getting the start time wrong. Throughout the text it says “before sunrise” leaving the time a bit vague, but not wrong. The Illustrator’s Note calls a Mullah, a Muslim priest, which struck me as odd.
It seems so odd to have a Ramadan book void of even basic religious mentions. Why would you stress about getting up, let alone getting up on time, if there are no rules and requirements to your fast. The whole reason for the fast is an act of worship, how the worship is done matters. By removing religion: the lack of salams, prayer, duas, connection to Allah, etc., it makes fasting seem like an act in isolation and it makes it just about food, which shortchanges the month of Mercy. Ramadan is joyful, it is so much more than a month of just being hungry.
There are so few Palestinian middle grade books, so on that premise alone this 216 page book has a lot of value. Because I am not Palestinian, I do not live, nor have I ever lived under occupation, I can argue some of the concerns from a point of privilege, and I acknowledge that is not my right. I have been asked numerous times about this book and how it frames the suicide bombing mentioned in the text and blurbed about on the back of the book. It honestly is not a large part of the story, that being said, in my outside privileged view, I do not know that a 10 year old in the west will have context to understand the act of this level of desperation from the oppression and humiliation mentioned in the book. This is why I have held off my review. The truth does not need to be defended or explained, and I fear my reservations will be taken as such, which is not my intention. Would I let me 8 year old read this, yes, but we will read it together and discuss. My children are aware of what is going on in Palestine, but Karim, the 12-year-old protagonist supports the bomber, and that notion is not clearly pushed back on. With discussion, absolutely, I think readers, will truly get Karim’s perspective that something has to be done to change the status quo. The fear when Karim is alone and the target of soldiers, the settlers forcibly seizing the family land, the humiliation of strip searching men at checkpoints, the curfews, and constant fear of attack and imprisonment are all presented through the main character’s eyes, and would also do better with some discussion, so that empathy and duas and action can result. But, the commentary as to the suicide bombing are minimal, there is even a prank package bombing that is presented as rebellion by a side character, and I would worry how a young child, without guidance, would internalize it. Additionally, this is yet another difficult book for me to review, primarily because it was first published in 2003, and because I don’t know how much comes from a western gaze and how much the Palestinian voice played into it. Islam is clear on the prohibition of suicide. In the early 2000 the news out of Israel was often about such attacks, but as an outsider, I honestly do not know if it was simply Israeli propaganda and stereotypes amplifying the idea as part of their public relations strategy or reality, seeing as now that Palestinians have direct outlets to share their daily life under an oppressive occupation, there is rarely talk of suicide bombing attacks. The author states on her website:
Islamic School Librarian 