Tis the Night Before Eid

Synopsis: 

It’s the night before Eid and the family is getting ready for the Eid celebrations tomorrow. The book summarizes various aspects of Ramadan that have passed.

Why I like it:

• The rhyming text is very well written and uniform throughout the book!
• The illustrations are really cute and reflect a modern muslim home

Things that could be improved: 

• The author mentions that there are 30 days of Eid. There’s no reference anywhere that there can be 29. So an asterix with a little explanation at the bottom or in the glossary would have been better.
• “Eid mubarak to all and to all a good night!” is similar to Santa saying “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night” and kids will definitely pick up on that. 
• In one of the illustrations the dad is praying with open arms, and that may be of concern to many. 

Overall: 

If your kids go to school in a western country they will definitely see this as a parody of “Twas the night before Christmas”, especially because it ends with “Eid Mubarak to all and to all a good night”. Also when I read it aloud I couldn’t get the “tune” from the Christmas poem out of my head. Plus how the kids were sleeping in bed “with visions of presents” is similar to with “visions of sugarplums”.

That being said the content is completely Ramadan and Eid related, and well written which is hard to do with rhymes! 

The details in the illustrations are great! There’s lots of diverse characters, lots of contemporary decor, and even the different outfits by the characters are reflective of what you would find in an American masjid. Not to mention the Maamouls look delicious!! Also to those living in MI, the masjid on the cover looks a lot like the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn

Overall there are many “the night before...” books and now there’s an Eid book too!

However it gives me “crescent eid tree” vibes and with all the options we now have for Ramadan stories and new ones coming out every year, I didn’t recommend this book to my friends and family and it would be hypocritical of me to recommend it here. Because Islamic books are generally pricey I would personally skip on this one.

Other Reviews:

Islamic School Librarian