Amina's Voice showed a strong girl, and now Hena Khan has given us a new girl, Jameela, with one older sister and two younger ones, yes, four girls, in an ordinary life that soon becomes not so ordinary any more. Khan grew up loving Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, reading her sister's copy over and over again, at last deciding to write her own "parallel". It is the life of a family who happens to be Muslim, this one not following all the religious rules, but still facing some areas of discrimination. Jameela tells the story, a seventh grader whose biggest dream is to become an accomplished journalist. She writes for the school newspaper which brings some conflicts, one with the editor and advisor. She's a little jealous of her older, beautiful sister, Maryam, annoyed with one of the younger ones, Aleeza, and closest to the other younger one, Bisma. When the father must take a job that will take him far away for six months, the family's comfortable life is shaken, but it is the illness of one of the girls that brings a different look at growing up and learning for Jameela and the others. Showing those thoughts and observations through Jameela's words and her telling of other's actions and words felt like an honest showing of how life works. It isn't always smooth and "ordinary", but changing actions can make it extraordinary. I enjoyed the story very much.
Thanks to Candlewick Press for the following four books!
There is this little girl who wants to be an astronaut. Her name is Astrid and she moves happily through the day with her dad talking about her biggest wish. She's loved stars ever since she can remember, the story says. Her dad swings her round and round as he asks if she can survive going round and round the earth in a spaceship. He continues to tease with eating from a box or living with zero gravity, to which she answers, "I can do that all day long." The colorful black-lined illustrations show a loving home with Dad and a dog. And the turning: "At last it was time to go get Mama." There is a lovely surprise for readers as they arrive at the space center and three people are shown in silhouette, one of which is Mama! She is an astronaut!
Ken Wilson-Max has added some extra information at the back about space exploration, most exciting is the timeline of women in space! What a delightful book for young readers, just beginning to know about astronauts and space and beginning to wonder what they'd like to be when they grow up.
A Mother Goose for everyone, with Vladimir Radunsky intermingling children's scribbles with his own tongue-in-cheek illustrations, it is Chris Raschka's tale of the 'real' Mother Goose with some old favorites rhymes added in the final half. Elizabeth Foster lived in Colonial-era Boston and married widower Isaac Goose. Because Isaac had ten children and the two together had four, they ended up with fourteen, calling to mind "There Was An Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe". There is also a double-page spread of nursery rhymes about courtship and Matrimony that is fun to see. Raschka’s poetic text introduces this story and he finishes with some familiar and new-to-me rhymes. Young readers may need some added help understanding some of the old rhymes, but they are fun to read aloud along with enjoying Radunsky's art. Sadly, Radunsky died in 2018, did not enjoy this published book, but I hope he loved the whimsey of the task to illustrate a new Mother Goose to children.