After finishing up the final project, I took some time to reflect on the semester as a whole. I feel that this semester-long discussion of different cultural groups and literature that is meant to represent those cultures was one that was ideal after dealing with the final projects. This course chose books that were meant to foster discussion and offer exposure to the types of literature that is necessary for anyone who is serious about being a multicultural educator; however the reality is that these types of books are rather difficult to gain access to if someone does not have a mentoring course (TE 448) or have access to publications that are designed to give titles and feedback on books that positively reflect a culture.

When attempting the final project the difficulty in locating books opened my eyes to the issue of access and the whole reason that a class such as TE 448. If a teacher or parent were just to walk into a public library and ask for a children's book that was "about" Muslims or Muslim Americans the selection would be sparse and in most cases would be about the Islamic religion and not about the people. Without access, people remain in the dark.

I think that a course such as this one is a powerful course to offer for perspective teachers because it presents a learner with the many issues that are balled up into literature and the various cultures whose voices are often times absent from the stories that we read to students. I feel that once a teacher is versed in discussion and experiences the resources and problems with locating varying voices that teacher has moved into the light. In the end, I feel that by taking this course I have been given access to publications and started a sparse library of my own and that I now have the tools to build up and out, not allowing for closed minds left in the safety of darkness.

What do the Professionals Have to Offer?

Book Links

When considering a professional resource I turned to the readings for this course to get an idea of sites that might be useful to those who want to add quality to their multicultural collections. I took another look at the websites listed in Tami C. Al-Hazza's article that reviewed some of the children's literature available. My search led me to the Book Links page published by the American Library Association (https://www.ala.org/ala/productsandpublications/periodicals/booklinks/booklinks.htm) .

I essentially found the same article from the January 2006 issue of Book Links that is a publication of the American Library Association. I think that the resource, Book Links does a good job dealing with issues of diverse literature and offers as many examples as possible for the literature in publication. There are various articles in the January 2006 publication that deal with different cultures and offers links to websites that discuss more in depth the materials covered throughout the text. (https://www.ala.org/ala/ProductsandPublications/periodicals/booklinks/webconnections/Webconnectionsjan2006.htm)

I feel that this publication, whether it is subscribed to or is visited at its website, offers information that can be very useful when trying to develop a classroom library in general and does a excellent job in making titles of multicultural texts available for the ever preceptive mind.

The Reality of Multicultural Children's Literature

When I chose the topic of Muslim/Muslim American literature, I knew that it would be somewhat difficult to locate children's books, but I didn't think it would turn out exactly how it did. For my sources I went to the East Lansing Public Library in thinking that the East Lansing has a diverse population of people and some of the children that reside here are Muslim/Muslim American and would appreciate and use books that represent their culture positively. (http://www.elpl.org/)

Once I arrived at the library, I was saddened by the fact that most of the books written for children about the Islamic faith or children who identified as a Muslim were non-fictional and about the mechanics of the Islamic faith. I was able to check out four books, two of which were about the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and one that had fairy tale qualities. The book that I was most appreciative of was Salaam; A Muslim American Boy's Story because it depicted a contemporary boy who is American and Muslim and illustrates how he deals with the misconceptions that some people have about his faith and, therefore, his family. The story shows him as a boy who is like any other American boy with a best friend whom he does everything with and how he likes to make his teacher laugh.

As a whole, I was disappointed with both of the books that dealt with Ramadan because the illustrations made the holy month seem more whimsical than important and realistic. The information that was presented was dry much as if it had been taken out of the same non-fiction books that were written for children that I had opted to not check out. I chose Ramadan by Suhaib Hamid Ghazi because the illustrations were a bit more lively than Magid Fasts for Ramadan (this is a beginners chapter book). I think that it is suspicious that Ramadan was written by a man of Arabic decent, but the book reads more like a non-fiction book that happens to have a by named Hakeem narrating; I think that this adds again another interesting layer to the insider/outsider debate.

In the end, from the research possibilities and the check out realities, I have come to understand that just because the books are being published about Muslim/Muslim Americans doesn't mean that they find their way to public library shelves and the ones that do are ofter non-fiction or simply poor text that do not serve to education others.

Ramadan

Ghazi, Suhaib Hamid. Ramadan New York: Holiday House, 1996.
(http://www.holidayhouse.com/HH/details.cfm?id=164)

This story is about a boy named Hakeem who is Muslim. Much attention is paid throughout the story to the history of the Islamic faith, what it means and the significance of Ramadan to Muslims.

This illustrations of this book again portray the Muslim faith in a whimsical fashion with the pictures appearing dreamlike. Another thing that I did not like about this book is that it takes non-fictional information about Ramadan and tries to weave it into a fictional story by having a young, male narrator, named Hakeem, take the reader through the information about Ramadan.

I question the function of this book because it seems like the information is less heartfelt and less enjoyable as a fictional text; also I feel that by portraying Ramadan fictionally detracts from the importance of the holiday to a faith that readers who are not Muslim. I also think it is interesting that other than the biographical information offered at the end of the text, there is no information about the author either on a website of his own or on the publisher's website. Although Suhaib Hamid Ghazi wrote this book as one third a series known as The Prophets of Allah and has spent time in Saudi Arabia (the home of Mecca), he is essentially a financial advisor for American Express which leads me to questions why he would have been asked to author a book about the Muslim holiday Ramadan.

"Salaam; A Muslim American Boy's Story"

Brown, Tricia. Salaam; A Muslim American Boy's Story New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2006.

Salaam; A Muslim American Boy's Story is a non-fictional pictorial story of a young boy names Imran. Imran is the typical American boy who just happens to be Muslim as well. Throughout the story, readers are given a tour of Imran's daily life with his best friend Trevor as well as confronts some of the misconceptions that his fellow Americans hold about his faith. The story is accompanied by black and white photographs that take you through the daily life of Imran in such a way that the reader is able to see Imran as an American boy who is Muslim.

I enjoyed this particular story because it was a modern portrayal of a Muslim American family going through life much that other American families. I feel that the photographs serve as a connector for readers to see themselves whereas other types of illustrations would have added a more fictional feeling to the book. This book address misconceptions in a plain-language way and when coupled with the photographs, this could be the day to day living of any American family and its universal appeal, I feel, is the most effective and appropriate way of introducing Muslim Americans to other Americans.

The publisher's website was the only site that I could find a photo and a brief description of the book; this is where the photograph used on this page was taken from. Critical reviews or other types of reviews were not available, but this could be due to the recent publication of the story.
(http://www.henryholtchildrensbooks.com)

"The Hundreth Name"

Oppenheim, Shulamith Levey. The Hundredth Name Pennsylvania: Boyds Mills Press, 1995.

The Hundredth Name is a story about a young boy living in Egypt that is extremely close to his camel. The boy, named Salah, is deeply worried about his camel because he always looks sad and Salah wants nothing more than for his camel, named Qadiim (meaning Ancient One), to be proud and happy. Through the course of the story Salah turns to his faith for help in making Qadiim happy and proud. Help is granted to Salah from Allah in that he tells Qadiim what the hundredth holy name is when no one else is permitted to know. Once Qadiim knows the secret of the hundredth name, he is happy and walks tall and proud

In reading the information about the authors of this book I was concerned that is was too much of a fairy tale. The author, Shulamith Levey Oppenheim, heard a tale of the ninety-nine names for Allah on her first visit to Egypt and was so captured by it, she penned it and had it first published in Cricket Magazine. In 1995 the story was published and illustrated by Michael Hays who says that he did "extensive research" for this work and had "an Egyptian father and son" sit as models for some of the scene that take place between Salah and his father. I feel that this particular image of the Arab world is too stagnant and depicts the Muslim religion as having fairy tale properties.

I found Shulamith Levey Oppenheim's website which features some reviews of The Hundredth Name, all of which are positive and credit Oppenheim for her use of prose in such a sort story and says that The Hundredth Name "conveys the lessons of a foreign culture and its enduring religiosity". (http://www.shulamithoppenheim.com/hundredthname.htm). It worries me that I could not find mention of The Hundredth Name in a more critical review of the text and I feel that it is problematic that a story with fairy tale qualities could come to represent a modern society and religion.

Where is reality?

For this week, our class has read Boy Meets Boy a story that depicts the rocky dating road of a teenage boy who is gay. The issues within this book are not ones that are unrecognizable to a heterosexual female when remember the high school dating scene, however what kept catching me was the atmosphere of the high school in which the main character, Paul, functions in. The high school has a quarterback who is also a "drag queen" and many other students are open about their sexual orientation.

For me personally, it was difficult to read Boy Meets Boy because I could not wrap my head around the idea that there is a community within our current society that is so open and comfortable with people who identify as either gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans-gender or queer. As an optimist, I hope that some day all people while find the recognition and acceptance within our society as a whole that they as individuals deserve; however, as a realist, I didn't like reading Boy Meets Boy because I didn't know how to approach the novel because I didn't know what genre to place the book in--did Levithan intend for the book to be fantasy or did he intend the novel to be read as realistic fiction?

I was personally bothered that I had a difficult time wrapping my head around a community built on tolerance and acceptance and to get a better understanding, I visited David Levithan's website as was suggested in the "About the Author" portion of the book. Levithan says that when writing Boy Meets Boy he wanted to challenge the normal treatment of gay teenagers within literature as the tormented person in the student body at a high school and to my great dismay, when asked if his work is a work of realistic fiction or fantasy Levithan's reaction is that it is both--a story written on a line going straight down the middle of where we are and where we are going ( http://davidlevithan.com/about_davidlevithan.html ).

How unsatisfying to my constant need for having a clear cut answer, but now I believe that I understand the reasoning of Levithan for writing this story in such a way, when you look at our current society, we has such a long way to go in order for the high school that Paul attends to become a reality and yet, when you look at our past, we have come a long way in making it possible to dream that acceptance is a possibility. This is the reality and reality is rarely clear just as in Boy Meets Boy.