A captivating and relatable religious tale for kids.
The young Prophet Muhammad displays a flair for leadership and miraculous healing powers in this first installment of an illustrated children’s book series.
Abidi’s (The Valuable Gift, 2017) winsome story relates several episodes from the life of Muhammad, who, though just a young boy, already has a presence that is softly commanding but also thoughtful and kind. The action opens with Muhammad playing with other boys, waving a toy shield and issuing marching orders that the soldiers happily obey. Thinking to ease his troop’s thirst, he repairs to the house of his aunt and foster mother, Fatimah bint Asad, for water. On his way back, Muhammad casually touches a withered, barren date palm, which immediately blossoms into greenery and grows clusters of luscious fruit that he then feeds to his little army. This reminds the astonished Fatimah of other stories she heard from Muhammad’s previous foster mother, Halima. Once, Halima and the infant Muhammad fell asleep beneath another withered date palm, which duly blossomed. Another time, Muhammad touched a sheep with a broken leg and instantly healed it. Pondering these things, Fatimah feels rapturous emotion and asks Allah to send her a son to be Muhammad’s lieutenant—the future Imam Ali. Abidi’s simple but active narrative is nicely illustrated in a Disney-ish style colored in pastel red, blue, purple, green, and gold, with intriguing visual details to draw kids’ eyes. The uncredited images include village and pasture scenes that are decorated with ornate rugs and wildflowers and teem with chickens, cats, and ruminants busy with their own antics. The Prophet’s face is piously obscured by a blaze of divine radiance, but other figures wear nuanced expressions that convey a complex mix of joy, awe, and unease at his supernatural doings. The scenes of Muhammad and Fatimah interacting feel a bit more reverent and stilted than they might in an ordinary family. (Fatimah: “If I cannot be your soldier, I can at least be your supporter, right?” Muhammad: “My supporter? Yes, that’s a great idea!”) Still, the story conveys Muhammad’s holiness in a way that children can understand and enjoy.
A captivating and relatable religious tale for kids.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-68312-107-7
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Kisa Kids Publications
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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