Ibrahim (a.s.) the Builder by Khadija Khaki
📚 BOOK REVIEW 📚
Title: Ibrahim the Builder
Author: Khadijah Khaki
Illustrator: Tashna Salim
Publisher: Lunar Learners
Age: 3-7
🌟
Islamic Content: the Kaba
🌟
Concerns: see full review
🌟
Summary:
The animals are observing Ibrahim (alayhi salam) building a structure. They discuss among themselves what could this cube structure be and what could it mean.
🌟
Review:
This book is written in rhyme and it uses simple language for young children. It is a book of four in this series complete series. I purchased it a while back and due to my unpopular opinion about it, I kept relocating it to the back of the queue. This book directly looks at the establishment of the Kaba when it was first built by Prophet Ibrahim (a.s.) At first glance, telling a prophet's story through the perspective of talking animals seems to be a clever idea in order to avoid illustrating prophets or people in general. But for some reason, I found this slightly unsettling. While this narrative would work well in telling the story of prophet Nuh (a.s.), this one somehow left me with more conflicted. When the animals are referring to Ibrahim (a.s.), they discuss as if they are speaking about a next door neighbor. No salam is ever recited upon the mention of his name. Lastly, it states that Ibrahim (a.s.) build a cube, rather it was build as a rectangular structure and later rebuild as a cube. I haven't read the other books in the series so I can't testify about the quality in comparison to this one. I really wanted to like it, and gave it time to grow on me but just couldn't get over them.
🌟