Not Now, Noor!

Product Information

is a celebration of Muslim women and gently approaches the religious reasons for wearing a hijab in a light-hearted way for children. This instructive board book opens with the simple statement that many religious people wear head coverings to show their love of God.

It is by no means wrong, it just at the end presents what hijab means, the benefits of wearing it, and one's personal feelings toward it, while skirting the answer the girl keeps asking of why? When Noor finally gets to her mom it is she who answers with poetic lyricism, "We are Muslim women, my Noor, Unapologetic and true. Noor loves her mum, and all the other hijabi women in her family, but wonders why do they wear headscarves? It seems to be a common approach lately, and I wish that more picture books about hijab would clearly articulate that the commandment to cover is in the Quran.Perhaps the trend has me more frustrated than this book on its own warrants, it really is sweet and I don't regret purchasing it and having it sent from the UK. Each time the rationale gets more outrageous: hide the eyes on the back of your head, prevent you from getting nits, etc. The book is beautifully illustrated, the size is great to be shared, the text funny, the voice playful,the joy contagious but the answer for me, just missed the mark, not by a lot, but by enough that I think an adult would need to supplement the overall takeaway message.

Faizah sees her sister as a princess wearing her beautiful blue hijab, but not everyone at school sees it this way. The book starts with Noor identifying what her Ammu's hijab is and isn't, how she wears it and how she doesn't. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Just as Noor is ready to give up on her quest, her Ammu arrives home and knows just the thing to say.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. A flowery sentiment, but little Noor and the reader never got the answer as to why Muslim women wear hijab, and I think that it is unfortunate. With my own children way past sharing such titles with me, and my own knowledge now quite poor, I have mostly relied on recommendations from my Twitter friends up until now to guide my acquisitions. This 32 page book is incredibly adorable and silly, and yet so vague in the answer that is the whole premise of the book, that it really has me wondering why we are so afraid (in children's books and possibly in our daily lives) to say that we wear hijab because Allah swt commands it?

It allows for a serious conversation about hijab to occur after, and it intentionally pushes the humor, which I definitely think we need more of in Muslim centered books. The biggest question on her mind is why her Ammu (mum) and the other women in her family wear a hijab (headscarf). Back to the story, Noor starts by asking her sister, the coolest hijabi she knows, if she wears it to hide her snacks in, or hide her big ears, but Affa brushes her off with a, "not now, Noor" and she is off to the next family member to ask. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.The illustrations are cute, the character designs are great, and I'm really excited for kids to be able to feel represented by the media they consume. Nabila Adani lives in Jakarta Indonesia and enjoys illustrating different cultures around the world. Farhana is a Birmingham based primary school teacher turned author with a passion for empowering diverse voices through story-telling. Inspired by the experiences of Olympic medallist Ibtihaj Muhammad, this is a beautiful and powerful story about the bond shared between siblings and being proud of yourself and your beliefs.