The Garden of My Imaan

was a wonderful find. The story takes you right back to being a fifth grader, especially if you’re a girl. Figuring out who self is amongst fear, racism, bullying, misogyny and family pressure is a journey that is portrayed so well here. I appreciated the two glossaries in the back of the book as well. This book is grade level 3-7 and/or 8-12 years old. It would make a wonderful clsssroom read.

Great book! I was afraid that it would imply that the Muslim girl was ok only because she did not practice her religion, but it did not. This book showed that not all Muslims are bad any more than any other people group. The author did a good job portraying the struggles this young girl had dealing with her religion and the fears she had that she would be ridiculed. This book will definitely be on my middle school book shelf.

There are many things to like about gardens. Once you get past all of the work (well, you never really do), you find that they provide beauty, nourishment and a reflection of one's self. "The Garden of My Imaan", by Farhana Zia, does all three. My 2 favorite things about this book are 1) the humor and sensitivity with which the author treats the subject and 2) that there is no singular cultural viewpoint or agenda being pushed here. On one level, it's the engaging story of a month-in-the-life of a pre-teen girl. On another level, it may be one of the most important "post 9/11" books ever written.

This is a must read for all middle schoolers! The Garden of My Imaan is a captivating look into a middle school girls' struggle with just finding her comfort level of who she is spiritually and how she fits into her world view with her family, community, and the world around her. So interesting to see that throughout all of her "life experiences" the glue that held her together was her conversations with God. Very well written! The author did an amazing job with really taking the reader through Iman's spiritual journey and growing up in as an American Muslim after 9/11. This book is definitely NOT written for only one ethnic or religious group.

This is a great book that contains many themes relevant to the life of any late elementary or middle schooler. Realistic, sweet, and satisfying with a happy ending as Aliya discovers and embraces who she is as the story progresses.

Fills a great void in literature for Muslim girls. I am reading it with my daughter as the content makes it necessary to have an adult to discuss some of the issues that are brought up in the book. This actually makes it great for bonding and conversations between daughters and mothers or other caretakers. Very current and meaningful to girls grades 4 and up.

See more of my reviews on The YA Kitten! My copy came from YA Books Central for review. Diversity: 3 – Closer to Reality Racial-Ethnic: 4 (Aliya and her family are Indian Muslims; her best friend Winnie is Korean; Marwa’s family is Moroccan) QUILTBAG: 0 Disability: 0 Intersectionality: 4 (the book’s focus on Muslim girlhood creates plenty of intersections between gender and racial-ethnic identity)One review of The Garden of My Imaan calls the book a modern homage to Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, that classic book parents gave to their kids when puberty threatened to rear its ugly head and begin the monthly misery of menstruation. I never got to read that one because I was an ace at odd things like not getting to read things that were “normal” for kids my age to read. That continued all the way into high school. ANYWAY. The Garden of My Imaan is far from perfect, but it has a lot of value for its audience even if it’s a bit didactic.I’m used to seeing most MG and YA Muslim rep in the form of Arab Muslims, but Aliya provides a different perspective as a tween girl from an Indian Muslim family. Her family observes Ramadan as many other practicing Muslims around the world do, but their cultural practices as an Indian family are mixed in as well. Aliya's dynamic with her family is lovely, especially when it involves her grandmother and great-grandmother.At times, it seems to offer commentary on how people of color can perpetuate racism against other people of color as well. Though it’s a one-scene wonder and never comes up again, Aliya’s grandmother expects Aliya’s half-Korean best friend Winnie to be good at math because Asian people are “all the same.” Sadly, it’s played off as a joke.It demonstrates the same point a bit unintentionally as well through Winnie’s mangling of the Spanish language on a basic level. Winnie once calls someone a “loco mujer” and “crazy woman” is offered as a translation. Later, she says Aliya looks “precioso” in something. As soon as you learn adjectives in Spanish, you’re taught that they’re gendered and typically placed after a noun, not before it. “Mujer loca” is how to correctly call a woman crazy; if a girl looks beautiful or beautiful in something, she looks preciosa. Some adjectives like inteligente (intelligent) don’t change form based on the noun’s gender, but the two used in the book do.If there’s a term for when a Manic Pixie Dream Girl is entirely platonic, The Garden of My Imaan is guilty of using the trope through Marwa, the hijabi girl and new kid at Aliya’s school. Marwa exists to say whichever sage thing Aliya needs to hear at a given time and teach Aliya to be more comfortable with her Muslim-ness. The book’s heavy focus on Aliya leaves Marwa bereft of her own character arc and reduce her to a heavily didactic character in a novel that already feels more like a teaching tool than a reading experience.Typically, a book like The Garden of My Imaan would be a little too didactic for my tastes, but this is 2016. Due to an outdated, broken electoral system, a minority of the United States pushed an openly racist and Islamophobic man into the presidency and the world will suffer for it. With rhetoric like his shaping the world, The Garden of My Imaan is highly necessary and offers a new view into life for Muslim families post-9/11.

Garden of My Imaan by Farhana Zia shows a middle school girl who is trying to find herself, who she is, what she believes, and how she fits in her world. The author does a great job into letting readers get a glimpse into what it is like for a young girl to grow up and find herself. She tries to be a "normal kid" and wants to stand up to the bully and make new friends, but her confidence is brought down because of her religion. This all changes when there is a new girl in school named Marwa who is Muslim like Aliya, but they are practically the opposite. Marwa is confident in herself and her beliefs and wears the hijab, and Aliya does neither of those things. Aliya is supposed to show Marwa around the school and help her, but it turns out Aliya gets helped too, not by finding her way around the school, but by finding herself. The way the author demonstrates Aliya finding herself by learning from Marwa is brilliant. This book is great for third grade to middle school level readers. It inspires readers to accept and be yourself, no matter where you come from or what you believe.