Reviewed by Ariana Hussain Review Source: Hijabi Librarians Book Author: In a novel inspired by Little Women, thirteen-year-old Pakistani American Jameela Mirza, second oldest of four sisters and an aspiring journalist, lives with her family in Atlanta. This Eid holiday has brought changes: their beloved father is missing Eid for the first time ever to look for […]
Yo Soy Muslim: A Father’s Letter to His Daughter
Reviewed by Beverly Slapin Review Source: De Colores Book Author: In this letter to his young daughter, Afro-Mexica Muslim father, poet and spoken-word artist Gonzales gently and lovingly introduces her to the many facets of her world. Speaking directly to Muslim children and indirectly to all children everywhere, he addresses the beauty of Islam and […]
Love from A to Z
Reviewed by Notes from an Islamic School Librarian Review Source: Notes from an Islamic School Librarian Book Author: Now that there is legitimately a genre of YA Islamic Romance out there told in Own Voice, the expectations are high that a book is compelling, realistic, and unique somehow. While the author’s first book, Saints and Misfits, […]
Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots
Reviewed by Rethinking Schools Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: Every 20th-century U.S. history class covers World War II. However, the 1943 attack by white sailors on Mexican Americans, Filipinos, and African Americans in Los Angeles, known as the Zoot Suit Riots, gets little mention. Author Margarita Engle uses free verse to bring this history […]
Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge
Reviewed by Anndee Hochman Review Source: Broad Street Review Book Author: The summer I was 12, I spent weekday mornings on the tennis courts at Friends Central School in Wynnewood, swinging a clumsy backhand and counting the minutes until lunch. Each afternoon, I parked myself under a maple tree and devoured Gone with the Wind while sipping a […]
Mommy’s Khimar
Reviewed by Mahasin Review Source: Hijabi Librarians Book Author: “A khimar is a flowing scarf that my mommy wears,” explains a young African-American girl in the opening pages of Mommy’s Khimar, a new picture book from Simon and Schuster’s Salaam Reads imprint, written by first-time author, educator, and activist Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow and illustrated by Ebony Glenn. The term “khimar” […]