Nusaybah - A Mermaid's Tale by Laki Isra
📚 Nusaybah - A Mermaid's Tale 📚
Author: Laki Isra
Illustrator: Azra Momin
Publisher: Self-Published
Age: 5-11
Islamic Content: Muslim characters
Concerns: None - aside from your view on Muslim mermaids?
Summary:
Nusaybah is determined to make friends with the most popular girl in school, Laura. Even though Laura doesn't give her the time of day, Nusayba yearns to be accepted and liked by Laura and her group. When the Annual Squiggle Contest arrives , Nusaybah is overwhelmed between impressing her 'friend' and doing well in the contest.
Review:
I can't say that I have had the opportunity to read a Muslim mermaid story. First of all, can we make a note of how adorable these modest mermaids have turned out? Normalizing modest wear for our girls in today's world is extremely tough and one of the biggest challenges in our society.
This story clearly displays the protagonist going above and beyond to impress a girl that is rude and inconsiderate towards her. While the concept is promising, the execution of the plot and storyline was a bit all over the place for me. A good part of the book is spent just setting up the story and it takes awhile to get to the conflict. Which resulted in a long for a picture book. Lastly, the resolution confused me and I am not quite sure if Nusaybah truly learned her lesson. Again, I think a good developmental editor would have been a great asset in weeding out the text and smoothing out the story. With its visual appeal, and a little more work on the text, this story has potential for improvements.
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