The Perfect Gift

Gr 1—4—It is almost time for Eid, and Sarah's brother and sister have already selected gifts for their mother. Sarah doesn't have any money, but she's looking for something special. Winter is almost over, snow blankets everything, and natural beauty is everywhere. As she walks along a path in the nearby woods, something catches her eye. It's the first flower of spring. Sarah has found her gift. But as she leans down to pick it, she remembers a saying of Prophet Muhammad, "Allah is beautiful and loves beauty." Sarah runs home and rummages in the garage for some materials. She returns to her flower and arranges a popsicle-stick fence around it and hangs up an Eid Mubarak greeting. She leads her family into the woods to see God's "perfect gift to the world." The family makes it a tradition to return to the spot every Eid-ul-Adha, thereby appreciating the Creator's wonders. Howarth's watercolor illustrations effectively portray a contemporary Muslim family living in North America or Europe. This realistic picture book, one of the few stories on Eid-ul-Adha, is a solid purchase for many collections.—Fawzia Gilani-Williams, Researcher in Children's Islamic Literature, University of Worcester, OH