Notable Books

Razia Jan grew up in Afghanistan but moved to the United States in 1970 and became a successful businesswoman. After 9/11 the plight of her native land weighed on her conscience more and more, until she returned to Afghanistan in 2008 and started Razia’s Ray of Hope Foundation for the purpose of making education available to girls. This picture book tells the story of a fictional Razia’s struggle to learn in spite of the opposition of her village culture. The actual Razia Jan shows up toward the end of the book to encourage the building of a girls’ school. The beautiful mixed-media illustrations add interest and depth to a simple story.

The Garden of My Imaan

Aliya thinks of herself as a normal Indian-American girl, whose life revolves around cute boys, girlfriend gossip, and extended family, but then Marwa, a hijab-wearing student with Moroccan roots, transfers to Aliya’s school. Marwa’s rock-solid confidence in Islam shows up Aliya’s own feeble imaan (faith). By the end of the novel, Aliya is thinking perhaps she should start wearing a hijab also. The story resolves standard middle-grade problems like snarky girls, mean boys, and difficult family members with a predictable ending, but it’s an entertaining window into American Muslim life as well as Islamic piety.

I Am Malala (Young Readers Edition)

I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood up for Education and Changed the World was a bestseller of 2012, and its author the youngest person ever nominated for a Nobel Prize. The youth edition is more visual, relatable, and emotional, but begins with the same incident: that morning in 2012 when armed revolutionaries stopped Malala’s school van, asked for her by name, then shot her in the head. Her near-miraculous recovery and subsequent career as a crusader for women’s rights are well-known, and worth knowing for young readers. Malala still considers herself a devout Muslim, and her story can provide interesting material for discussion.

Hidden Girl

When Shyima was 8, her parents sold her to a wealthy family in Cairo. She never forgave them, especially after her employers moved to California to escape legal problems, taking her along as their only servant. Twenty months later, an anonymous tip to Child Protective Services sent immigration officials. Eventually, due to the consistent efforts of a dedicated immigration agent, Shyima was free. Three foster homes, two Muslim and one Christian, provided a rocky introduction to American life. Now Shyima is extremely grateful to the “land of the free” for her new life. Though she’s still on a spiritual pilgrimage, all human trafficking stories should end so happily.

Spotlight

Paul Gosselin’s Flight from the Absolute: Cynical Observations on the Postmodern West (Samizdat, 2012) reminds me of a brilliant book from three decades ago, Herbert Schlossberg’s Idols for Destruction (Thomas Nelson, 1983). Schlossberg’s book, the product of enormous reading, connected the dots of American politics, economics, culture, and philosophy. Quebec resident Gosselin does the same in two volumes originally written in French and more analytical of European writers than Schlossberg’s American-based work.

Gosselin’s work is loosely structured, so that reading it is like panning for gold: You’ll also see a lot of grime. But if you’re interested in connecting a Smashing Pumpkins line—“Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage”—to Darwin’s musings about how “an endless number of the lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world,” Flight from the Absolute will provide critical thinking. —Marvin Olasky