Two From Islam

Picture books 

     There are very few loves as strong as the love between mother and small child.  Little Aleeya and her Mommy Sayang, the main characters of Rosana Sullivan's Mommy Sayang, are one such pair.  They do chores together.  She watches her mother pray.  And evenings end with bedtime stories.  Every night Aleeya's mother assures her that she will always be by her side...

     ...until one day she gets very sick.  Aleeya is distraught until she is inspired to do something to help her beloved mother get better.

     This tender story, drawn from Sullivan's life, which will appeal to preschoolers provides a good format through which to introduce them to some basic precepts of Islam.

     When Faizah, narrator of Ibtihaj Muhammad's The Proudest Blue, goes back to school shopping with her big sister, Asiya, and their mom, Asiya picks out her first day hijab, an ocean blue.  Faizah thinks she looks like a princess.  She can hardly wait to be able to wear a hijab of her own.

     Then Faizah hears some kids on the playground saying mean things about Asiya's hijab.

     Muhammad, an Olympic athlete who competed wearing a hijab and was the inspiration for a hijab wearing Barbie doll, began wearing them regularly when she was twelve.  Some kids bullied her.  Unfortunately hijab wearing girls today face the same bullying.

     "I wanted to tell this story so that children who look like me could see themselves in a picture book--a story of family, love, and faith.  So they can see two sisters taking pride in hijab, and see that the parts of ourselves that might make us appear "different" are worth celebrating."

On a purrrsonal note, I'm doing a really fun volunteer project for Upward Bound.  They have this clothes room to provide garments kids might not have.  For example, a lot of kids came to the summer program with only sandals and needed closed toe shoes.  During the school year there is a room in the Upward Bound suite.  The clothes migrate to the dorm for the summer program and then back.  Last week when I started they were still in bags.  As I unpacked and sorted I noticed two areas for improvement.  

1)  Most of the clothes aren't what teens really want to wear.  They're donations from a thrift shop.  An example: Portland Water District tee shirts.

2)  There aren't enough racks to really separate clothes.  Luckily there's room for more.

I got permission from Becky to acquire more teen friendly garments.  I've already acquired some from Black Bear Exchange and am seeking groups to help out.  Becky gave me permission to start thinning out the worst stuff already.  I'll also do research on acquiring sturdy but inexpensive racks.

I'm so excited about the possibilities. (Jules)

People need clothes because they don't have gorgeous fur coats like I do.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to Becky for encouraging initiative.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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