PPBF – Mommy’s Khimar

It’s Mother’s Week (we deserve more than a one-day celebration, don’t you agree?), and Ramadan. I can’t think of a better time to review a new picture book that celebrates a special mother-daughter bond and provides a window into the lives of these Muslim American characters.

Title: Mommy’s Khimar

Written By: Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow

Illustrated By: Ebony Glenn

Publisher/date: Salaam Reads (an imprint of Simon & Schuster Inc)/2018

Suitable for Ages: 4-8

Themes/Topics: Islam, #WNDB, mother-daughter bond, imagination

Opening:

A khimar is a flowing scarf that my mommy wears. Before she walks out the door each day, she wraps one around her head.

Brief Synopsis: A young Muslim American girl dresses up in her mother’s head scarves.

Links to Resources:

• Create a dress-up corner or dress-up box with ties, hats, scarves, jewelry and other fun-to-wear accessories and clothing (a friend had a collection of bridesmaids’ dresses from a second-hand shop that my daughters loved);
• Find Ramadan coloring pages here;
• Find daily Ramadan craft ideas at A Crafty Arab.

Why I Like this Book:

Mommy’s Khimar is a joyful book exploring the bonds of daughter and mother as the narrator, an unnamed child, wears a favorite khimar, scarf, that belongs to her mother. I love the exuberance of the young girl, and I love that the politics about whether to cover or not are absent from this heartwarming story.

I think kids will love how the narrator wears her mother’s khimar in so many imaginative ways: as a queen’s “golden train,” to “shine like the sun”, as a “shooting star” diving into clouds, as “golden wings” shielding her baby brother, as a superhero dashing “at the speed of light.” And adults will love the opportunities to discuss differing forms of dress and religious practices, including a Christian grandmother who doesn’t go to the mosque, but “we love each other just the same.” Also, as Thompkins-Bigelow notes in a blog post, black Muslims are the largest group of Muslims in the US, but the post-9/11media focus on Muslims as “foreigners” means that few representations of religious black Muslims exist in children’s literature. Mommy’s Khimar is a most welcome exception.

Starting with the welcoming cover that invites the reader to open the book, Glenn fills the pages with smiling faces and a sunny-yellow palette mixed with other bright pastels that further the celebratory feel of Mommy’s Khimar.

A Note about Craft:

Thompkins-Bigelow combines two universal themes, the bond between mother and child and a child’s desire to be like a parent by dressing in her or his clothing, and explores these themes as they play out in a specific cultural group, African-American Muslims. As we write our own stories, what universal themes can we explore?

Thompkins-Bigelow utilizes one item of clothing, the khimar, to be a lens, focused on the life and love within the family she portrays. What unique items could you highlight to help explore your particular cultural or ethnic group?

Although I’m not an illustrator, I can’t help noting the effect of Glenn’s sunny color scheme that renders the entire reading experience so joyful. What a different reading experience this might have been if Glenn hadn’t used yellow throughout or if Thompkins-Bigelow hadn’t highlighted the color in her text.

Mommy’s Khimar received starred review from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly and Shelf Awareness.

Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow is a former English teacher and current program director of Mighty Writers South, a Philadelphia not-for-profit that helps children write with clarity. Mommy’s Khimar is Thompkins-Bigelow’s debut picture book. Read about her inspiration for Mommy’s Khimar and see interviews with her at CityWide Stories, bookish.com, and Cynsations.

Illustrator Ebony Glenn “seeks to create enchanting visual stories with whimsical illustrations to incite more beauty, joy, and magic in people’s lives.” Read an interview with her at The Brown Bookshelf.

Founded in 2016, Salaam Reads is an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Salaam Reads’ mission is “to introduce readers of all faiths and backgrounds to a wide variety of Muslim children and families and offer Muslim kids an opportunity to see themselves reflected positively in published works.” Salaam Reads also published Yo Soy Muslim, which I reviewed last September.

This Perfect Picture Book entry is being added to Susanna Hill’s Perfect Picture Books list. Check out the other great picture books featured there!