Does My Head Look Big In This? (2005)

I did not love this book at all. I found the main character to be very whiney and naive. I felt like it had the potential to be a coming of age story, but in the end it just felt like I was re-living teenager hood through the eyes of another person. I enjoyed listening to the perspectives on difficult cultures, and I believe that was a great angle for a story. I do not understand what people of other cultures go through, nor do I understand what racism looks like in other countries. Unfortunately, I felt that that was clouded by annoying characters. ( )

Liked the idea but this was just boring. After reading 'The Atheist Muslim' it seemed like this might be an interesting book to read after. A YA/MG book about a young Australian-Palestinian Muslim teenager choosing to wear the hijab full-time. It's abut her choice, how people (from her family, friends, classmates and strangers) perceive this, plus the "regular" life of a teenager with all of its trials and tribulations: school, relationships, friendships, family issues, etc.

Having had Muslim friends when I was younger (these friendships have since lived their lives) this seemed like a good read out of curiosity. My friends and I discussed many of the topics that Amal faces: her decision, the questions, the wishes of her family, the stares, questions about her faith, navigating various spaces of school/public/home/friends/etc. as a Muslim woman, etc.

So while some of the happenings in the book certainly seemed realistic, some of it seemed confusing too. It could be because of a variety of situations (such as Amal having to constantly defend her faith to people--some of my friends said that was something they've had to deal with), but sometimes it just seemed like the author was trying to throw the main character into these scenarios without an actual plot to the story.

Which in itself was fine, but it would have been better if this had been a collection of short stories rather than a book where...a lot of nothing happens. It might be because it's definitely not for my age group (and admittedly I haven't dealt with teenagers on an extended basis for quite awhile) but I was just bored.

I think for the right person this could be a very important read. But I can't help but think that books like this have done stories like this much more effectively. I personally wouldn't recommend it but again, for the right person it might be an excellent pick. ( )

It is a book about a girl, Amal Mohamed Nasrullah Abdel-Hakim that faces tribulations of identity, gender, and religious issues as she makes a life and faithful commitment to her religious aspects of life that will change her ‘oh so normal’ life around. This story captures the empowerment of a young girl who is constant trying to find herself in others, but realizes that it is within herself and her faith where her identity is.

This was a book about a Australian Palestinian girl who is deciding to wear her hijab full time for her first day of school second semester. Then as we go through the book we slowly find out more about her community and her friends as well as the how her classmates, teachers and community respond to her differently when she is wearing her hijab. Then after that we hear about her normal high school life and what she as a teenager has to deal with as part of the growing up process. We see her and her friends become friends with guys and how that changes the whole aspect of her social life and school. As well as other issues that we have in society such as kids getting bullied for their religion or running away.