Abdul's story:
Are you an educator?
Homeschooler? Teacher? Or a tired parent who is really struggling with your child's writing skills?
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Being a writer and homeschooler myself, I can relate with Abdul who is always struggling with silent Es, sometimes tenses, spellings and for sure we want to erase whatever we wrote down yesterday or a few hours ago.
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I loved to see Mr Muhammad and his teaching passion to encourage Abdul to keep writing and never give up. The illustrations are so beautiful.
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Being an ESL instructor for 6+ years, this book reminded me about my students who were really afraid of English because of several rules and it was one of the toughest languages for them. I wish I had this book back then but will definitely keep it alone in my new ESL classrooms.
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Definitely a must in my Black Muslim kids' books collection and I'll highly recommend this book. Simple but heart touching.
"𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐦 𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐤𝐮𝐦" said Muhammad Sadiq to hoyo.
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What a pleasant surprise to have these 2 newly released books in Sadiq series. Sadiq and the gamers and Sadiq and the Big elections.
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𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞: mention of death in Sadiq and gamers.
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As a boy's mom I always look for books that can inspire my sons, where they can see themselves and the Sadiq series is one of them. Sadiq is Somali boy who lives with his big 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐢 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐦 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲. It's ideal for intermediate or advanced readers ages 7+ to practice their reading skills. I loved Sadiq with his contact glasses which is definitely big support for all those kids wearing contact glasses and get bullied.
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Working as volunteer with elderly people, standing against your friend in elections and still be friends, having lots of Islamic phrases as well as Somali words. Each book comes with, glossary of difficult words, crafts, some discussion questions and writing practice at the end. Diverse characters and girls wearing Hijab. So much stuff suitable for this age group. Just love Sadiq 
Room for everyone:
To create room for someone, all you need is some wiggles, some giggles and space in your heart 
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𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 is to teach young children about numbers in super cute funny way which not only teaches them their counting but also very important lesson how to be kind and share space with others.
Musa and his Dada went on Daladala and their driver saw some people on his way who were walking with lots of stuff in heat and sun. So, he offered them a ride. Despite Musa's protest that there wasn't enough space in their ride, his Dada always comforted him by saying there is some till they reached their destination.
If you are teacher or homeschooler, I would highly recommend this rhyming number book in your lesson plans to have some fun reading. For me this book was nostalgic because I have experienced such ride in Pakistani village (yes, I traveled with goats and hens' side by side)
The scene that my kids enjoyed the most was the end, where once everyone reached the last stop, they came out of the Dalaladala and were doing stretches
I'm Muhammad Ali:
"𝐈 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐚𝐦 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞" said Muhammad Ali who became Muslim which means his religion was Islam.
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My favorite sentence from this book 𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐌𝐮𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐝 𝐀𝐥𝐢 is biography written for kids and its comic style caught my attention (Let's keep this debate at side for now that Boxing is permissible game or not because this picture for kids is teaching something else).
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Note: nose bleeding and blue eyes are shown but not prominent.
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I have seen few books about Muhammad Ali and most of them left me with disappointment where authors either completely tried to hide the fact that he was Black Muslim revert by saying "he changed his name". Why? They didn't bother to mention it which was quite sad for me.
Starting from his birth to heavy weight champion, his struggle to raise his voice against laws for Black people in this book really fills you with enthusiasm, passion and resilience. To tell people that you are Muslim wasn't very easy for him and he declared his independence in an interview in front of media at time when athletes weren't supposed to talk about their faith. He changed that brutal support of boxing into science.
"𝘐'𝘮 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘮 𝘊𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘺, 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘭". He had dyslexia where he struggled with reading and interpreting words and was afraid to fly as well. These facts can definitely bring lots of motivation in kids that it's ok if they are born differently and nervous sometimes. Women in hijab, men with head coving "kufis" is making this book very special for Muslim kids.
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I usually don't read autobiographies because they are "boring books" for my kids but this book is very different. Trust me, I read it a few times so far and every time I just loved it. The end of this book contains his memorable pictures and his timeline.
Deep in the Sahara:
What a pleasant surprise to get another hijab book in my hands. Why I wear 𝙝𝙞𝙟𝙖𝙗/𝙈𝙖𝙡𝙖𝙛𝙖? This book is written in rhyming style, from the perspective of 7 years old girl who was looking for answer of her question "why women wear hijab/Malafa?".
To look mysterious?
To look like a lady?
To look like a long-ago queen?
Malafa/Hijab is more than all of the above.
Scene is set in 𝙈𝙖𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙖, 𝙬𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝘼𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖 where you can see desert life along with animals starting from camels, bats, scorpion, donkey dates, masjid and mud houses.
Call for prayer and men gathering in masjid while women prayer inside their houses teaches several lessons to Muslim child.
It contains glossary of difficult words at the end along with the author's note which is worth reading.
If you are homeschooler and planning your lesson about African Muslims or Black Muslims, I would highly recommend this book.
Little Brother for Sale:
After flipping through first few pages the very first thing that came in my mind was the story of 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐟 𝐀.𝐒 with the following verse from Quran:
"𝐾𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑌𝑢𝑠𝑢𝑓 (𝐽𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑝ℎ) 𝑜𝑟 𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑡 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 (𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟) 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑, 𝑠𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑣𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑏𝑒 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑒𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑘 (𝑏𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑛)." (Quran).
Asma becomes fed up with her younger brother Hamza’s annoying little ways. She decides enough is enough and puts her little brother up for sale. Hamza steals her food, pulls her hair and always takes her parents' attention. She is doing something amazingly brilliant. She makes different plans to get rid of him and offers him to different people including postman and her neighbor but soon she starts blessings of having Hamza when she had to finish her blue berries herself.
Her facial expressions are so real that your older sibling can totally relate (𝑦𝑒𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑖𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑖𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔).
Diverse Muslim characters, super cute 3D vibrant illustrations and beautiful color scheming increased the beauty of this book. A beautiful book that shows the feelings of an older child and the moral of the story is totally priceless. Islamic phrases being used in book throughout e.g. 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐦 𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐤𝐮𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐦 𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝.
Siblings' jealousy is natural especially when your last child is promoted to the status of “older sibling”.
𝒁𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒅:
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𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘴𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘖𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘫𝘪𝘥 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥𝘊𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥, 𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘤 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 has made mine and your zaid grew their clouds of grief, disappointment, depression and anxiety darker and dense. Every passing day feels like a "bad day". It's getting more and more difficult for them to lift their heads with all those gigantic clouds gathered around..
𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑒..
Then definitely "𝐙𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝" is the book we need to keep along to make our Zaids go through these tough times.
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How to feel grateful from all these sad situations, this book is definitely a very good practice for kids to reflect upon it. Along with this there are questions mentioned on the last page which helps them practice language skills too e.g. 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐚𝐝𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 and make sentences of their own from 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 mentioned in the book.
So, I would say it's not just a story book but a great resource for kids 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 and good resource for our homeschool Alhamdulillah.
𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐳𝐚𝐢𝐝'𝐬 𝐠𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝?
My Kufi Book:
Living in west with diverse people from different religions we are learning about our unique identity. We identify Muslims through their unique dressing while Masjids through their crescent and moon on minarets (because Roman Catholic churches confuses us).
Here we found this amazing book that discusses this uniqueness in a similar way. Jaysh was young Muslim child who loves to wear his hat. One day he found another Muslim girl in a shop but she didn’t notice him. He discussed this matter with his mother. On asking he told his mother about her Khimar/Hijab. His mother asked him about his unique identity to be seen as a Muslim he found himself puzzled and sad. He didn’t like his "𝐊𝐮𝐟𝐢" that his mother brought for him. He discussed this matter with his father who made him feel happy by telling him "𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐤𝐮𝐟𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐦 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝". So, his father brought him one of his own choices.
Incomplete faces, black courageous child are amongst the unique features of this book. It gives you an opportunity to discuss different kind of head wears with your child including 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞, 𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐤𝐮𝐟𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐫 as well.
𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒊𝒎 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒑 gave us opportunity to discuss the unique "kufis" across the Muslim majority continents. We will definitely use this book as an educational resource while studying continents in us homeschool InshaAllah. Ideal book to build confidence in Muslim kids about their unique clothing. It has many Arabic terms and Muslim manners as well.
Here we found this amazing book that discusses this uniqueness in a similar way. Jaysh was young Muslim child who loves to wear his hat. One day he found another Muslim girl in a shop but she didn’t notice him. He discussed this matter with his mother. On asking he told his mother about her Khimar/Hijab. His mother asked him about his unique identity to be seen as a Muslim he found himself puzzled and sad. He didn’t like his "𝐊𝐮𝐟𝐢" that his mother brought for him. He discussed this matter with his father who made him feel happy by telling him "𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐤𝐮𝐟𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐦 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝". So, his father brought him one of his own choices.
Incomplete faces, black courageous child are amongst the unique features of this book. It gives you an opportunity to discuss different kind of head wears with your child including 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞, 𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐤𝐮𝐟𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐫 as well.
𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒊𝒎 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒑 gave us opportunity to discuss the unique "kufis" across the Muslim majority continents. We will definitely use this book as an educational resource while studying continents in us homeschool InshaAllah. Ideal book to build confidence in Muslim kids about their unique clothing. It has many Arabic terms and Muslim manners as well.
Toronto Public Library FREE pdf:
Being as resident of Toronto, Canada, I'm grateful to have every possible book available to borrow, read with my kids and enjoy. I've spent 3 years searching for every possible book at the library and have prepared FREE pdf that is available for download here.
Not resident of Toronto?
Not resident of Toronto?
Not even Canada?
Most of these books are available in USA, UK and Canadian libraries. This lsit can help you to search for this title on Amazon and even your local bookstore.
Feel FREE to download and inform your friends, family and social circle?
Any questions? Feel FREE to leave a comment and I'll get back to you.
Note: All pictures are self-taken by Earth Custodians and can't be used without her permission.