Not Now, Noor!

Product Information

Bright, colourful and highly engaging, this is a book I could not wait to share with both my class and in my little lunchtime Story Club, where it proved a huge hit this week. The book is beautifully illustrated, the size is great to be shared, the text funny, the voice playful,the joy contagious but the answer for me, just missed the mark, not by a lot, but by enough that I think an adult would need to supplement the overall takeaway message. Throughout the book, those for whom a hijab is unfamiliar are gently corrected in their misassumptions with the result that the book is one that will educate them without their knowing – they will simply enjoy the story and the beautiful pictures throughout. With my own children way past sharing such titles with me, and my own knowledge now quite poor, I have mostly relied on recommendations from my Twitter friends up until now to guide my acquisitions. is a celebration of Muslim women and gently approaches the religious reasons for wearing a hijab in a light-hearted way for children.

This instructive board book opens with the simple statement that many religious people wear head coverings to show their love of God. Just as Noor is ready to give up on her hijab quest, her Ammu arrives home and knows just the thing to say. Yes I know there is a family tree on the inside cover, but at story time, it is cumbersome to flip back and forth. It seems to be a common approach lately, and I wish that more picture books about hijab would clearly articulate that the commandment to cover is in the Quran.Noor loves her mum, and all the other hijabi women in her family, but wonders why do they wear headscarves? Noor’s facial expressions, from excitement to dismay, are brilliantly funny and work well alongside the text.

Born and raised in Newcastle Upon Tyne and currently residing in Birmingham, Farhana Islam is a Primary School Teacher with a passion for telling stories and empowering diverse voices. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Back to the story, Noor starts by asking her sister, the coolest hijabi she knows, if she wears it to hide her snacks in, or hide her big ears, but Affa brushes her off with a, "not now, Noor" and she is off to the next family member to ask. Inspired by the experiences of Olympic medallist Ibtihaj Muhammad, this is a beautiful and powerful story about the bond shared between siblings and being proud of yourself and your beliefs. The illustrations throughout this story are so colourful and vibrant and bring Noor and her family to life through the pages.

The book starts with Noor identifying what her Ammu's hijab is and isn't, how she wears it and how she doesn't. Farina Islam and Nabila Adani’s picture book is a bright, cheerful and slightly cheeky look at what the hijab is and why some Muslim women wear it. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.Using a vibrant colour palette of reds, yellows and purples, the beautiful artwork is full of emotion and movement.

The biggest question on her mind is why her Ammu (mum) and the other women in her family wear a hijab (headscarf). A flowery sentiment, but little Noor and the reader never got the answer as to why Muslim women wear hijab, and I think that it is unfortunate. Telling the story of young Noor, who is desperate to find out why the female members of her family wear hijabs, this is a read which will delight young readers. Farhana is a Birmingham based primary school teacher turned author with a passion for empowering diverse voices through story-telling.She briefly worked as product designer in Japan and Indonesia before moving to the United States to study children's book illustration. Perhaps the trend has me more frustrated than this book on its own warrants, it really is sweet and I don't regret purchasing it and having it sent from the UK. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The illustrations are cute, the character designs are great, and I'm really excited for kids to be able to feel represented by the media they consume.