My Ramadan Journal Around The World

Why I like it: 

• The cover had 4 different ways to say “Happy Eid”
• The two books – “What is Ramadan? An activity book” and “My Ramadan Journal Around the World” have pretty much the same content. This review is for the Journal. I’ve noted the difference below.  
• The countries included are Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Mali, Morocco, United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, United States of America, Brazil 
• Each country includes a child that shares geographical facts of each country, and other interesting facts. Many countries also include interesting facts about animals. And overall there were so many new facts for me! Ie The Shah Jahan Mosque is the first purpose built mosque and a listed building in the UK. So there are many talking points to build on with your kids!  
• The book includes crafts to do, including a Ramadan Lantern, Paper Marbling, a whale, and a really pretty castle votive candle.
• Some countries include activities like, an unscramble game, matching activity, a maze puzzle, a look and find, and a crossword. 
• The book also includes recipes for Chana- Aloo, Habbat Al Hamra, Stuffed dates, and Brigadeiros (which is a microwave recipe!). Haven’t tried any of the recipes yet, but they look super simple and very kid friendly!
• The islamic topics included are Islamic battles, mosques, names of the Prophets, duas, nature described in the quran.
• The book ends with an Eid Plan with all the sunnahs for Eid!
• There are reflection questions and a certificate after every ten days
• One of the activities gets your kids to open the Quran and find what Allah described in that Ayah!
• There are Hadith related to Ramadan.
• It was fun trying to figure out which countries the entry the stamps on the first page belong to. 
• There is a supplication for the new moon at the beginning of the book we well. 
• There are several polaroid looking areas where kids can attach photos (or pictures they draw) 
• It introduced me to La Fete de Crepissage, and made me realize I REALLY need to read more about Muslims in Africa. I was aware of the mosque but had no clue that there was a whole festival with it! 
• The book also introduced me to the Alnor Senter. It’s like we all kind of know that there are probably mosques in the arctic but now we KNOW about one of them. And I think that’s very important for kids as it makes us appreciate the beauty of Islam — because THERE’S A MOSQUE IN THE ARCTIC! (actually this a great way to lead into looking up all the other mosques in the north which is exactly what I did!) 

Differences between the Journal and Activity Book:

• Indonesia, Morocco, Norway, USA, South Africa and Brazil are NOT included in the Activity Book, which means it also has less activities than the journal.
• In the Journal there is a daily moon tracker, checklist of the daily prayers, and a checklist for Suhooh, Iftar, Quran and good deed which the activity book does not. The hadith are also not included in the activity book.
• The crossword in the activity book is about London, whereas the crossword in the journal has Islamic words.
• The word search in the Journal has names of the Prophets, but in the activity book they are of the cities of Saudi Arabia. 
• There’s a glossary at the end of the Activity book but not the Journal.
  
  *Edit:
• The Publisher reached out to let me know that the activity book is designed for non-muslims with all the information but not the duas/Hadith

Things that could be improved: 

• I always check the “facts” presented in books before I tell them to my kids, and unfortunately after some fact checking- the Black forest cake is not actually named after the black forest in Germany. But that is the only one i could find, and with all the other amazing information you are exposed to I wouldn’t take any stars off for it (yes I will be telling the author/publisher about it and hope they change that in a newer addition)
• The crafts do NOT have blank pages behind them, which makes it odd to include them like that. They really should be a few pages of the crafts at the end, or included separately. The best option for parents like me would be as printable on the publishers/authors website!
• It’s a wonderful book and then they randomly added Spiderman in NYC! Lol which is completely ok because it’s Adam’s (an 11yr old from NYC) favorite hero but uhhh i’m not a fan of promoting marvel superheroes in Islamic books!

Additional Activities: 

• The book already includes many activities
• Look up more information about all the interesting facts!
• Pinterest Board: click here

Overall: 

Each country has fun facts on one side and a craft, recipe or activity on the other – so each country is divided over 2 days of Ramadan. The information is presented in an easy to read fun manner through the perspective of a child from that country. I learnt a lot of new things myself!

It introduced me to La Fete de Crepissage, and made me realize I REALLY need to read more about Muslims in Africa. I was aware of the mosque but had no clue that there was a whole festival with it! 

The book also introduced me to the Alnor Senter. It’s like we all kind of know that there are probably mosques in the arctic but now we KNOW about one of them. And I think that’s very important for kids as it makes us appreciate the beauty of Islam and the diversity of muslims around the world. It is actually a great way to lead into looking up all the other mosques in the north which is exactly what I did!

I really liked the “My Ramadan Journal Around the World!” and I highly recommend it! (the activity book is also good but the journal is better!)