Does my head look big in this?

I initially had heard about this book quite a while ago, I can’t remember where as it struck me as one of those teeny bop type books, those ones that you read when your like 14 (sleepover club?!) so I laughed silently to myself at the title and never gave It another thought. Then the other day my cousin (12 year old) was at our house and she was reading it so I borrowed it off her and thought I’d give a try.

At first my initial thoughts seemed to be accurate, the first few chapters were just like any other teenage melodrama with the usual clichés about parents, school, peer pressure blah blah blah. But I persevered, and as each character’s storyline deepened the book grew on me, in fact I think Randa Abdel-Fattah has done a good job in portraying your typical Muslim personalities. You’ve got the parents who think marriage is the sole purpose of their daughter’s life, the family that yearn to belong to the country they live in so much so that they come up in a rash when their home country is even mentioned. The brother who does drugs, messes about with girls yet wants his sister to be locked up at home and so the lists goes on. In fact the story has many layers and Fattah has tossed and turned until the right combination has been reached, you have your typical teenage problems (crushes, weight issues, bullying), Muslim issues (wearing a hijaab, how we don’t date) and cultural issues. The author also does a good job of clearing up many misconceptions and myths people hold about Muslims for example the whole cultural/religious clash between marriages and girls being “forced” to wear hijaab. As expected of most Muslim related books nowadays it also covered the whole terrorist issue which I think was done with sensitivity and poignancy.

I think this is one of the first books of its kind which shows the life of a western Muslim teenager in a humorous yet thoughtful way. However I think it is mostly aimed at teenagers, and as I have a few extra years of wisdom than the intended audience it didn’t have that “wow” factor in terms of its storyline. To me it was just an entertaining read with quite a few laugh out loud moments and several thought provoking instances. I think if I had read it at high school perhaps it would had a bigger impact on me, also I would recommend it to non-Muslims purely as it is a lighter way of gaining knowledge of Islam which is needed in this day and age!

A few choice quotes

"I’d rather follow God’s fashion dictates than some ugly solarium-tanned old fart who’s getting by on a pretty self serving theory of less is more when it comes to female dress"

"Putting on a hijab isn’t the end of the journey. It’s just the beginning of it"

"Sometimes it’s easy to loose faith in people. And sometimes one act of kindness is all it takes to give you hope again "