Rami the Ramadan Cat by Robyn Thomas

📚 BOOK REVIEW 📚 Title: Rami the Ramadan Cat Author: Robyn Thomas Illustrator: Abira Das Publisher: Ruqayya's Bookshelf @ruqayyas.bookshelf Type: Fiction Age: 5-11 Rating: 10 /10 🌟 ⭐ Islamic Content: Ramadan ⭐ Concerns: None ⭐ Summary: On the first night of Ramadan Saleem finds a lost kitten in his yard and names him Rami. Saleem and his parents take a photo of Rami and make posters to post around the neighborhood in efforts to find his rightful owner. In the meantime, Saleem and Rami become the best of friends. The cat is by Saleem's side while he eats, prays and even while reading Qur'an. Saleem really hopes, deep down inside, that Rami's owners would not find him so Saleem can keep him to himself forever. However, one night after taraweeh prayers at the masjid, Saleem momentarily looses his dad and fear comes over him. He is relieved to finally find him, but this scary experience makes Saleem wonder about Rami's family, how he must miss them and how scared he may have felt that night in the yard being separated from them. Determined, Saleem and his mother go door to door in their neighborhood until they find Rami's family. Eid is a very lonely day for Saleem but an unexpected surprise changes it completely. ⭐ Review: This beautiful story will absolutely make your heart feel warm and fuzzy inside. Highlights so many basic but incredibly important lessons of family, selflessness, kindness, compassion and of course faith and prayers. It's very common and natural that kids think of themselves and their desires before fully understanding the bigger picture. My favourite part of the story is that Saleem, through his own experience, is critically and compassionately relating his emotions to Rami's. This is brilliant. I love that the story is set in Ramadan but it is not the centre of it. The prayer, Qur'an reading and taraweeh are, again, part of the story naturally, but not the main theme. It is simply a normal part of their daily life. I love that Rami's owner is presented to be in a wheelchair in such an ordinary way. She is visually shown but not textually discussed which leaves such an open conversation for the parents to have with their children as they read. Also, how amazing are the illustrations? I haven't figured out why but I seem to favour the illustrations on white background instead of them taking every bit of space from one corner of the page to the other. I truly love Ramadan stories and this is one of them. 💕 ⭐ Available: @ruqayyas.bookshelf #ramitheramadancat #robynthomas #ramadanstory #muslimkidsbooks #islamickidsbooks #muslimauthor #muslimkidslit #raisingmuslimreaders

Feb 7/2020