A Day Out to the Zoo by Shazia Nazlee
A Day Out to the Zoo by Shazia Nazlee
Haroon and Talhah are two friends that love the zoo. They often visit and ponder upon the different creations of Allah. On this particular day, during lunch they have a discussion on who Abu Hurayrah (r.a.) was and his valued contribution to Islam that all of us benefit from even today.
I was pleasantly surprised when I read this book. It was an unexpected twist of conversation from animals in the zoo to one of the companions of the Prophet (s.a.w.s). The reader will learn many lessons from this story.
1. Kindness to animals.
2. Reflecting on the creation of Allah.
3. Few facts about the family structure of lions.
4. Get familiar with Abu Hurayrah, his personality, great memory, contribution and spreading knowledge of Islam, kindness to cats & his love for gaining knowledge.
5. Abu Hurayrah's advice on respecting their parents
6. Willingness to follow the companions examples.
I have yet to come across a well done book that teaches about important companions or wives of the Prophet (s.a.w.s) for young children/readers. Most books about the companions are written for teens/young adults.
The overall presentation of this book is disappointing. The very first thing I noticed, there is no blurb at the back of the book which would give the reader an idea of what the story entails and you can't guess it from the title either. Story starts on the very first page inside the cover which caught me off guard. Illustrations clearly show that there was minimal effort done to make this book visually exciting. Also, I felt that the first half of the story unnecessarily dragged for too long by the time it got to the main purpose of the book.
I was curious to see the year this book was published and I was surprised to find that there was no publisher information page. For an internationally known muslim publisher with many recognized books under their belt, itleft me confused.
In the end, I look at what is the biggest benefit of this book and is the positive Islamic message clear for the kids. Unless another book is published about Abu Hurayrah (r.a.) that will surpass this one with great quality appeal I will keep this in my bookshelf.
Apr 22/2019