A child-friendly book about Islamic figures’ names that speaks mainly to the initiated.
What’s in a name when it belongs to an important figure in Islam? A nonfiction book uses a graphic novel format to demystify the subject for older children.
“Our names are a very special part of us,” Mir writes. “Many times, they shape our personalities and even explain who we are or the person we would like to become.” So it’s fitting that this book pays close attention to names as it profiles 14 important figures in Islam, beginning with the Prophet Muhammad and moving chronologically through to Imam Al-Mahdi. Each chapter focuses on a different person and includes key facts about its subject’s life and a timeline of its religiously and historically significant events. But comic book–style stories about the figures—and how their words and deeds exemplify their names—form the heart of the collection. Mir, the author of Tales of the Messenger (2019), uses eye-catching pages to describe people like Imam Al-Kadhim, whose name means “the one who swallows his anger.” One day a farmer insults Imam Al-Kadhim, based on falsehoods he’s heard, and the imam’s companions want to use violence to teach the farmer a lesson. But the imam treats the man kindly, asking what he hopes to earn off his land. When the farmer says “Two hundred gold coins!,” Imam Al-Kadhim gives him 300, changing the man’s opinion of his character. As the book tells such stories, it abounds with undefined Arabic words and phrases—and references to events in Islamic history—which only readers who understand Arabic may be able to appreciate. Although some word bubbles have confusing placement, the engaging illustrations nonetheless may appeal to preteen and older children.
A child-friendly book about Islamic figures’ names that speaks mainly to the initiated.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-68312-132-9
Page Count: 191
Publisher: Kisa Kids Publications
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Maria wakes at the end in a singed easy chair and resolves to quit cold turkey. The target audience, having certainly been...
In a graphic novelette that wears its agenda on both sleeves and on every other garment, a young Latina mother moves through clouds of dialogue balloons filled with anti-smoking arguments.
Blowing off pleas to stop lighting up by her baby’s father, her widowed mother and the television, Maria falls asleep with a cigarette in her hand. She wakes to a dream world in which she has burned down her house, meets her repentant father in the hospital (“If I’d only realized that the only gift I was leaving you was asthma and a dirty habit…”) and is whisked off with a pregnant fellow patient to a confrontation with the witchy, bitchy—and, in Brown’s garishly colored, crudely drawn cartoons, hideously thin—head of the “Tarburro” corporation. She gloats: “Lovely, young parent smokers! Your children are my children!” For readers who aren’t already browbeaten into insensibility by the barrage of information, Jaime caps the episode with seven pages of statistics (mislabeled “Factoids”), websites and quiz questions.
Maria wakes at the end in a singed easy chair and resolves to quit cold turkey. The target audience, having certainly been exposed to similar anti-smoking screeds already, is unlikely to follow suit. (Graphic novel. 12-16)Pub Date: June 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-935826-20-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Kalindi Press
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2012
Readers will find answers to basic questions about Muslims, yet they might not understand the bigger picture if they don’t...
Ali-Karamali offers plenty of anecdotes about growing up Muslim in America in a conversational tone that is undermined by poor organization.
The work explores a range of questions that non-Muslims might have about followers of Islam. Ranging from a discussion of Muslim holidays or the kinds of clothes worn by Muslims to the development of Islam, the author explains these topics in a friendly, engaging manner. She provides several examples of Muslim practices around the world, going beyond her American experiences to reflect Islam’s diversity. Chapters are organized into three fact-filled sections on beliefs and practices, the development of Islam and current Muslim demographics. Unfortunately, beginning with the practical questions about food, fasting and fashion delays important concepts such as how jihad is not equivalent to terrorism and whether Islam mandates women wear face veils (in a word, no). Compounding this basic conceptual flaw, this organizational choice necessitates clunky references to later chapters. Moreover, it is not until Chapter 4 that cited figures or quotes are provided references, an example of sloppy scholarship.
Readers will find answers to basic questions about Muslims, yet they might not understand the bigger picture if they don’t hang in until the end. (notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-385-74095-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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