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.