With Ramadan here my goal is to round up all my Ramadan and Eid picutre books to share (and hopefully review). Unfortunately school is out for the summer, so it will be mostly just sharing with my own children and nieces and nephews.

Karen Katz, a popular children’s author wrote and illustrated a children’s book about Ramadan and Muslims called My First Ramadan. It is an AR 2.8 and the pictures are done in her signature style, which the kids will recognize and love. Told from a little boy’s perspective he explains Ramadan, Islamic traditions, basics of Islam (Quran, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)) and some of the five pillars. Words such as iftat, suhoor, fajr, maghrib, are introduced, explained and even have a pronunciation guide in parenthesis.

A few things that I discussed with my kids while reading are that in the picture talking about Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) teaching his followers to break their fast with a date and water, that RasulAllah is NOT pictured and why we don’t picture him. I also explained that each family has traditions, and the one in the book sits on the floor to eat. Islamically it isn’t required. We also talked about why in the book the men and women are in different rooms when they pray and in some Masjids they are in the same room, the men in front and the women in back.

The book mentions and illustrates how happy Ramadan and Eid are, and how Muslims come from all over the world. In the pictures some woman cover, some don’t, but we are all family. All in all a cute book that introduce and reinforces Ramadan.