*Review* Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr by Sara Khan

 

Genre: Children's 5-10 years

Published: February 6, 2024

Pages: 48

Join Raya and her mama and aba as they enjoy iftar, bake Ramadan cookies, do good deeds around their community and visit the mosque.

Raya is celebrating Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr with her family and inviting you along to learn more! It’s a time full of fun activities and celebrations, and a great opportunity to get closer to Allah.

Learn about this special time as Raya makes Ramadan mubarak cards for her friends and has her hands decorated with henna!

And when the month of Ramadan is over, Raya, her mama and aba, aunts, uncles and cousins have a magical Eid celebration, playing games, opening presents and eating delicious food.

This bright and engaging picture book is the perfect way to introduce little ones to Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr. Author Sara Khan brings the celebrations to life, drawing on her own experiences with her daughter, also named Raya! This book also offers fun activities that parents and children can do together in the lead-up to the celebration, such as making a pop-up card and cookies. A fun fact file and colorful quiz follow the story, giving kids the opportunity to learn more about Allah, worship and the lunar calendar.

Part of the Celebrations & Festivals series, you are invited into a family's celebrations as you explore the magic and excitement of religious festivals around the world.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review. 

I unfortunately don't have a good review for this book, because my version of it seemed to be missing most of the story. Like there were boxes where words were clearly supposed to be, but no words. Which is not very helpful for a review copy of a book. There was some great information at the end of the book about Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr that I could read, so I still learned some things from this book, but I didn't get from it what I was supposed to. 

The illustrations were bold, bright, and colorful, and I'm pretty sure I got to see all of them. In spite of the fact that I couldn't read most of the story, I'm still going to rate it 3.7934 out of 5 stars, based on the assumption that the story was as informative as the final few pages that I could read. - Katie 

Amazon

Sara Khan is an international bestselling Author and Art Director of Islamic Board Books for Toddlers and Young Children (Kube Publishing). She is a Linguist and Qualified Translator with a First-class BA (hons) in Linguistics and Arabic as well as a MA in Translation & Interpreting Studies. As part of her undergraduate degree, Sara lived in Amman, Jordan with her husband Naveed, where they spent their time studying Arabic at the University of Jordan Language Centre. Following the birth of her wonderful little girl Raya, Sara decided to build upon her academic career and her own personal experience to help fill the gap which exists when presenting Islam to young children in a way that is suitable for their age group. 

Nadiyah Suyatna is an illustrator and comic artist based in Bandung, Indonesia. She’s passionate about visual storytelling as a medium to tell stories through a different lens. Her work mainly revolves around identities, cultures, and other issues she cares about, wrapped with her personal touch and vibrant colors.