 Hi everyone, my name is Steph. This is Little Bookish Teacher and welcome or welcome back to my channel. Today I'm really excited to share five picture books with you that I have found that talk about the celebration of Ramadan which begins on March 22nd. Now Ramadan is not something that I celebrate and it's something that I'm constantly learning more about and as a teacher and educator that's really important for me because a lot of my students and a lot of the students within the school where I teach do celebrate Ramadan and I think it's really important that we have texts that we can use within classrooms to help other students understand because quite often that's a new thing for them as well but also to acknowledge the celebrations of all students, not just the major ones from the western world. To that end I have five beautiful picture books that are all about Ramadan that talk about why people fast during Ramadan, about what actually happens during Ramadan, the idea of waking up before dawn to eat the morning meal and then fasting until the end of the day and the sun has gone down before you have your community meal at the end of the day. They talk about the purpose of Ramadan being a time to help others without personal gain for yourself and to make positive changes in your life and I really love that. The other really nice thing about all of the picture books that I'm going to talk about today, they all have information about Ramadan at the end of the book that you can use with students, that you can use to build your own understanding and I think that is incredibly powerful. So the first book I'm going to recommend is actually an Australian text that is the month that makes the year by Inda Ahmed Azari which you guys will have heard me talk about in my recent releases picture book video at the start of the month but I wanted to mention it again because it is a gorgeous book all about the celebration of Ramadan. This book is about Dini who is fasting for the first time during Ramadan and it's about the challenges that she faces, the way that she grows throughout the month and she learns more about what it means to be an active participant in Ramadan and it is absolutely wonderful, it's beautiful and gentle, it has absolutely gorgeous illustrations and it was a delight to read. Another one that I found that I don't have a physical copy of is Hannah and the Ramadan gift by Kassim Rashid and this one was illustrated by Alilah Jaleel. This one has the tagline, a story of good deeds and kindness and it's about Hannah who is eight years old, she's not fasting yet but she wants to know how she can participate and help during Ramadan and so her grandfather talks her through the process and they spend the month donating to others and helping them out and Hannah learns that sometimes when you help other people it's not for personal gain, you don't necessarily get recognition and she struggles with that at times but then at the end when they have their big celebration she realizes that she has made an impact in people's lives even if she didn't realize it at the time so it's a really beautiful lovely story about participating in Ramadan without fasting. Another one that I don't have a physical copy of is the gift of Ramadan, this one is by Rabiah York Lumberd and illustrated by Laura Kay Horton and this one is about Sophia who is fasting for the very first time and it doesn't always quite go to plan and at first she doesn't make it through the first day and she feels really disappointed in herself but her family remind her that she's not expected to be able to get through the whole first day because it's her first time and she needs to get used to it and her body needs to get used to it. Again this one goes through ways of participating and celebrating Ramadan. Sophia learns throughout the course of the book that even just helping out her family has a really profound impact on her. This one was beautifully illustrated as well, it was just a lovely story. Then there is Under the Ramadan Moon by Sylvia Whitman and illustrated by Sue Williams. Again this is a really beautiful story, this one is a deceptively simple text, it goes through what happens during Ramadan so we fast by day under the moon under the moon under the Ramadan moon and there's a lot of repetition in here so rather than an actual narrative about a particular person this one is more about what actually happens during the month of Ramadan and it celebrates the fact that all of this occurs beneath the Ramadan moon because Ramadan is defined by the new moon at the beginning of the ninth month which is their most holy month all the way through to the next new moon. So everything that they do is done beneath the moon cycle and it was a really gorgeous book. The illustrations in here are absolutely lovely as well so again this would be perfect to read to a younger class because there's not a lot of text and it's something that you could definitely unpack each of the different facets of Ramadan. And then the last book is probably one that's good for middle and upper primary school readers and that is Leila's Lunchbox, a Ramadan story by Rin Farouk and illustrations by Leila Lyon. This book is about Leila whose family has recently moved from Abu Dhabi to America and she's in a new school, she's starting to make friends but for the very first time she's participating in Fasting for Ramadan. She's so excited about it and her mum gives her a note to give to her teacher to explain why she's not eating lunch but when she gets to school Leila begins to feel that sense of hesitation because everyone else is eating and she doesn't know how to share that information with others and it's quite confronting for her which you know causes her to clam up even more but during lunchtime she ends up in the library and she feels safe there and she talks to the librarian and lets her know that she's fasting for Ramadan and the librarian is really supportive which was what she was concerned was not going to happen with her teacher in her class. She's given the idea to write a letter to her teacher to explain what's going on and so that's what she does and she leaves it for her teacher at the end of the day. I not only love the story surrounding Ramadan and fasting and Leila's connection with her family but I loved that this one really did place an importance on libraries and librarians as being safe places for people and for students who recognize that librarians, being keepers of books, being keepers of knowledge are a safe space and that was a really lovely little part of the story that I wasn't expecting but this one is definitely a text that would be suitable for older readers. There's a lot more to unpack in it particularly around friendship and feeling self-conscious about things so this one is well worth checking out as well. So those are just five picture books that I have found about Ramadan and I'm definitely going to be on the hunt for more throughout the next month and hopefully I'll get a chance to share some more of them with you. If you have your own recommendations for picture books for Ramadan please please please share them down below. As I said I'm still learning, I'm still finding out more about all of this and I want to be able to recommend things not only to you guys but also to the staff and students in my school. Any recommendations you have would be amazing. If you want to let me know that you're here but you don't want to leave a comment feel free to leave a moon emoji down below otherwise I hope that wherever you're on the world you're staying safe and healthy and I will see you in my next video. Thanks so much for watching. Bye everyone.