Fifth-grader Farah attends Miss Peabody’s Academy, an exclusive art-centered girls’ school. Her assignment is to talk about her mother for “International Women’s Day” in front of the whole class, but her hijab-wearing, modest, widowed mother is boring, compared to her classmates’ mothers. She worries and even feels guilty until she talks to her mom and discovers a lot about her mom’s past, present, and future. Her mom is planning to open “The Hijab Boutique,” a store selling Muslim headscarves. This first-person perspective of what it is like being of a different religion and culture in the United States educates and fosters understanding about hijab wearing. Black and white pencil drawings give a sense of Farah’s classmates, her home, and hijab fashions in this quick read. mjw |
Title: The Hijab Boutique
Author: Michelle Khan
Illustrator: Eman Salem
Publisher: The Islamic Foundation, United Kingdom
Copyright: 2011
Original Language: English
ISBN: 978-0-86037-468-8
Paperback pages: 56
Age range: 10-12
Genre: Fiction
Book setting: Los Angeles, U.S.
Author’s ethnicity: Indo-Canadian
Author’s residence: Toronto
Subjects: Hijab, International Women’s Day, Islam, Mothers and daughters, Muslim women, Purdah, School |