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CM . . . .
Volume VI Number 11 . . . . February 4, 2000
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Muslim Child: A Collection of Short Stories and Poems.
Rukhsana Khan. Sidebars by Irfan Alli. Illustrated by Patty Gallinger.
Toronto, ON: Napoleon Publishing, 1999.
72 pp., cloth, $12.95.
ISBN 0-929141-61-X.
Grades 3-6 / Ages 8-11.
Review by Dave Jenkinson.
**** /4
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excerpt:
"Wake up, stupid" Jamal sat up and rubbed his eyes. His sister Seema stood
in the doorway. "Didn't you hear Abi calling? It's time for Fajr."
Jamal glanced at the clock. Four-thirty in the morning.
As soon as Seema was gone, Jamal flopped back down. The mattress hugged his
tired body, massaging his aching muscles. He felt so cozy. He wished he could bring the
sink to his bed, make wadu and pray lying down.
Eight stories form the core of Muslim Child for it is through these that
Khan, herself a Muslim,
attempts to share the basic tenets of Islam and to show what everyday life
could be like for Muslim
children, especially those living in the cultural diverse milieu of North
America. In "Fajr," Jamal has
difficulties dealing with the first of five daily prayers, one which
requires him to rise before sunrise
and to carry out an appropriate pre-prayer cleansing of his body. Nabeel,
of "The Black Ghost," is
worried that his non-Islamic friend, Danny, will think he and his family
are "weird" should Danny ever
meet his mother whose dress includes both an hijaab which covers her head
and an niqaab to cover
her face. The story title, "Azeeza's First Fast," suggests what Azeeza
attempts to do during
Ramadan, the Muslim month of feasting; however, she discovers that keeping
the dawn to dusk fast
is most difficult, especially when a classmate's mother brings a birthday
cake to school. In "I Love
Eid," a child shares the happenings of Eid, the Muslim Festival of Charity.
An overseas orphanage
is the setting for "Samosas!" in which the honesty of Ahmad, one of the
orphans, is rewarded by his
being adopted. Keeping dietary restrictions is central to "Jumbo Jelly
Shoes" for Jameelah learns that
the candies she has just purchased, and now cannot return, contain pork
byproducts. To respond to
Halima's question regarding the year of birth of Mohammad, Grandmother
relates the story of "The
Year of the Elephant." Finally, in "Lost at Hajj," Bilal has been part of
his parents' pilgrimage to
Mecca, but he has become separated from them in the throng and is now lost.
Muslim Child, in addition to containing three poems by the author plus
brief selections from the
Quran and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, also has instructions on how
to make samosas and
an Eid card. Patty Gallinger's black and white illustrations, some of them
full-page, serve both
decorative and informational functions.
Instead of Khan's interrupting her stories to explain terms, such as
"adhan" or daal," the words, when
first used, are presented in italics and then defined or expanded upon in
brief sidebars written by Irfan
Alli. Using fiction as a means to impart factual information is a challenge
for an author because the
story can easily become didactic. Khan generally succeeds, though, but
especially in those instances
in which she presents her central characters with situations involving
moral decisions, such as Jamal's
having to choose between sleep or early morning prayer or Jameelah's being
tempted by candy
containing pork byproducts, a fact about which she could feign ignorance by
pretending she had not
read the packaging information that listed the ingredients.
Muslim Child is a must purchase for most school and public libraries lack
materials which, in user-
friendly fashion, speak both to Muslim and non-Muslim children about Islam.
Highly Recommended.
Dave Jenkinson teaches courses in children's and YA literature in the
Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba.
To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@mts.net.
Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association.
Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice
is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without
permission.
Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - February 4, 2000.
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