This thoughtful and uplifting volume will keep readers turning pages year-round; here’s to many more.
Fifteen accomplished Muslim writers from various regions and backgrounds share Eid-themed short stories in this middle-grade collection.
Stylish Hawa from Philly spends Eid in New York City with the Mandinka side of the family and learns to get along with her cousin. Kareem buys himself a new bike, then learns how to embody the meaning of his own name: “generous.” Most of the young protagonists live in majority non-Muslim countries—Americans of various ethnicities in the United States, a Syrian family living in a refugee camp on a Greek island—and identity issues are sometimes in the foreground. The traditions depicted vary, but the themes of family, community, and faith permeate the volume. Whether making or buying special foods—Eid brownies, doughnuts, lontong—or taking care of younger siblings, these young heroes and heroines help make Eid special for others. The diversity within the collection is impressive, including several blended families and a recently converted one, and while the writing varies in style and quality, each story is engaging, full of emotion and thought. Particularly powerful are Jameela Thompkins-Bigelow’s poem connecting present-day Eid scenes to imaginings of the early Muslims who arrived in the Americas enslaved and Hanna Alkaf’s lyrical account of a Malay girl’s attempt to save Eid for her family. A well-placed graphic story by G. Willow Wilson and illustrated by Alfageeh, who also contributes a frontispiece to each story, provides a reprieve midway through the book.
This thoughtful and uplifting volume will keep readers turning pages year-round; here’s to many more. (Anthology. 8-12)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4083-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Which raises the last question: of a satirical stance in lieu of a perspective.
The comical longings of little girls who want to be big girls—exercising to the chant of "We must—we must—increase our bust!"—and the wistful longing of Margaret, who talks comfortably to God, for a religion, come together as her anxiety to be normal, which is natural enough in sixth grade.
And if that's what we want to tell kids, this is a fresh, unclinical case in point: Mrs. Blume (Iggie's House, 1969) has an easy way with words and some choice ones when the occasion arises. But there's danger in the preoccupation with the physical signs of puberty—with growing into a Playboy centerfold, the goal here, though the one girl in the class who's on her way rues it; and with menstruating sooner rather than later —calming Margaret, her mother says she was a late one, but the happy ending is the first drop of blood: the effect is to confirm common anxieties instead of allaying them. (And countertrends notwithstanding, much is made of that first bra, that first dab of lipstick.) More promising is Margaret's pursuit of religion: to decide for herself (earlier than her 'liberal' parents intended), she goes to temple with a grandmother, to church with a friend; but neither makes any sense to her—"Twelve is very late to learn." Fortunately, after a disillusioning sectarian dispute, she resumes talking to God…to thank him for that telltale sign of womanhood.
Which raises the last question: of a satirical stance in lieu of a perspective.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1970
ISBN: 978-1-4814-1397-8
Page Count: 157
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1970
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A disjointed yet sincere story about family, Judaism, and finding oneself.
Hannah is desperate to be Jewish.
Grandma Mimi, her mother’s mother, is Jewish, so according to Jewish law she must be too, right? Even if her White father, who was raised Catholic, and her nonreligious mother don’t seem to think so. When Hannah attends her best friend Shira’s bat mitzvah, she finally finds the place where she feels she belongs, and she decides to have her very own bat mitzvah. Unfortunately, her parents—especially her mother—vehemently disagree. So, Hannah schemes with Grandma Mimi and Aunt Yael, a rabbi and her mother’s estranged sister, to prepare for her own bat mitzvah. Hannah secretly learns Hebrew and studies her Torah portion in six months, and her rapid mastery of the language feels unrealistic. Her experience is an authentic portrayal of struggling to find oneself through religion even when parents may not be supportive. However, Hannah’s parents’ constant negativity about Judaism—her father frequently “jokes” in ways that read like microaggressions, and the context for her mother’s hostile comments is not revealed until the end—will be deeply uncomfortable for some readers, though the novel does end with a positive message of love and acceptance. The mix of prose, poetry, and recipes is original, but the execution leads to a disjointed and choppy read. Readers questioning their sense of belonging could find this to be exactly what they need.
A disjointed yet sincere story about family, Judaism, and finding oneself. (author's note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-38691-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Versify/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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