Ramadan's Coming By Rabia Bashir

📚 Ramadan's Coming 📚

Author: Rabia Bashir

Illustrator: Laila Ramadhan

Publisher: Bismillah Bees

Age: 3-8

Islamic Content: Ramadan

Concerns: It's a song book meant to be sang with the Jingle Bell's tune

Summary/Review:

I have been thinking about whether I should write this review or not. This picture book is written in rhyme and it is meant to be sung in Jingle Bells tune. Rhyme is okay, sometimes flows but I am having a hard time forcing myself to sing it to the tune to my kids. It is awkward.

I don't actually mind retellings or rhyming books that are done well to popular nursery tunes that we can recreate for our kids. While this idea is cute, we really have to draw the line somewhere.

The last couple of years Muslim businesses have recreated way too many Christmassy things and made them Muslim; the crescent tree, the Islamic ornaments, gingerbread masjids, Eid sweaters, and too many more to list on this post. Muslim books are no exception.

I understand that 'Jingle Bells' isn't religious in nature BUT it is culturally and widely recognized as a Christmas song. Ramadan and Eid are special on their own, they don't correlate to Christmas, or any other holiday for that matter. We don't need to Christmas-ize our holidays to make them more appealing to our kids. Let's show our kids the joy through other creative ways that show the blessings of this month without needing to compare constantly.

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