Summary: Amal, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, decides one day that she will wear her hijab, the Muslim head-scarf for women, full time. Her parents even question her decision since they have never put pressure on her to wear the hijab full time. The story is about her journey throughout the school year with her new identity. She deals with ostracizing and strange looks but also develops a sense of self, friendship, and courage.
Citation: Abdel-Fattah, R. (2007). Does my head look big in this?. New York: Orchard Books.
Impression: Overall, this book was okay. At times I felt that the modern references about Amal's life were too cliche and attempted to overly state that Amal is both hip and traditional. These attempts to juxtapose the modern young adult female with the Muslim traditions appeared unnatural. The topic was very intriguing but could have been approached differently to make it more realistic.
Review:
Hazel Rochman (Booklist)
Like the author of this breakthrough debut novel, Amal is an Australian-born, Muslim Palestinian “whacked with some seriously confusing identity hyphens.” At 16, she loves shopping, watches Sex and the City, and IMs her friends about her crush on a classmate. She also wants to wear the hijab, to be strong enough to show a badge of her deeply held faith, even if she confronts insults from some at her snotty prep school, and she is refused a part-time job in the food court (she is “not hygienic”). Her open-minded observant physician parents support her and so do her friends, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, secular. Her favorite teacher finds her a private space to pray. The first-person present-tense narrative is hilarious about the diversity, and sometimes heartbreaking. For her uncle who wants to assimilate, “foreign” is the f-word, and his overdone Aussie slang and flag-waving is a total embarrassment. On the other hand, her friend Leila nearly breaks down when her ignorant Turkish mom wants only to marry her daughter off (“Why study?”) and does not know that it is Leila’s Islamic duty “to seek knowledge, to gain an education.” Without heavy preaching, the issues of faith and culture are part of the story, from fasting at Ramadan to refusing sex before marriage. More than the usual story of the immigrant teen’s conflict with her traditional parents, the funny, touching contemporary narrative will grab teens everywhere.
Rochman, H. (2007, July 1). [Review of the book Does my head look big in this? by R. Abdel-Fattah]. Booklist, 103(21).
Claire Rosser (KLIATT Review)
We have been waiting for just such a book as this in YA literature! Abdel-Fattah is a Muslim, an Egyptian-Palestinian-Australian who lives in Sydney. Her narrator is Amal, a smart junior inprep school, whose parents are professionals and who is heading in that direction herself, especially after a highly successful debating contest. Amal was a student at a Catholic school as a child, then at an Islamic school for several years, and now she is at a prep school where being Muslim is a distinct oddity. As the story begins, she is deciding that she wants to begin wearing a headscarf as a sign of her faith--hence the title. Even her parents are somewhat hesitant about this, since it will set Amal so thoroughly apart from the other students. Now, Amal is not someone who is especially pious--she loves junk TV, going out with friends to shop and gossip, and is generally a person any YA can like and relate to as they read about her--this is familiar chick lit with a new twist. What’s so good about the story is just how easy it is for non-Muslim readers to relate to Amal; and I’m sure Muslim readers will snap this one up since they rarely see themselves portrayed in YA literature. A subplot concerns a friend of Amal’s from the Islamic school: Leila is just as smart as Amal and yearns to continue her education and become a professional; however, her parents do not encourage her as Amal’s parents encourage her. Instead, Leila’s mother is trying to arrange her marriage and believes marriage and motherhood is all any good Muslim girl should want. Leila runs away to a women’s shelter, and finally returns home with her mother’s promise to let her continue her education. Here’s a great line as Amal reports how things are going: “Leila brought home the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice for an English assignment and her mother watched it with her. Apparently she was very impressed with Mrs. Bennet’s matchmaking skills.” Fun and just what we need in the way of diversity.
Claire Rosser (KLIATT Review)
We have been waiting for just such a book as this in YA literature! Abdel-Fattah is a Muslim, an Egyptian-Palestinian-Australian who lives in Sydney. Her narrator is Amal, a smart junior inprep school, whose parents are professionals and who is heading in that direction herself, especially after a highly successful debating contest. Amal was a student at a Catholic school as a child, then at an Islamic school for several years, and now she is at a prep school where being Muslim is a distinct oddity. As the story begins, she is deciding that she wants to begin wearing a headscarf as a sign of her faith--hence the title. Even her parents are somewhat hesitant about this, since it will set Amal so thoroughly apart from the other students. Now, Amal is not someone who is especially pious--she loves junk TV, going out with friends to shop and gossip, and is generally a person any YA can like and relate to as they read about her--this is familiar chick lit with a new twist. What’s so good about the story is just how easy it is for non-Muslim readers to relate to Amal; and I’m sure Muslim readers will snap this one up since they rarely see themselves portrayed in YA literature. A subplot concerns a friend of Amal’s from the Islamic school: Leila is just as smart as Amal and yearns to continue her education and become a professional; however, her parents do not encourage her as Amal’s parents encourage her. Instead, Leila’s mother is trying to arrange her marriage and believes marriage and motherhood is all any good Muslim girl should want. Leila runs away to a women’s shelter, and finally returns home with her mother’s promise to let her continue her education. Here’s a great line as Amal reports how things are going: “Leila brought home the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice for an English assignment and her mother watched it with her. Apparently she was very impressed with Mrs. Bennet’s matchmaking skills.” Fun and just what we need in the way of diversity.
Rosser, C. (2007, May). [Review of the book Does my head look big in this? by R. Abdel-Fattah]. KLIATT Review, 41(3).
Uses: This would be a great book for a book club with a secondary-school female teen group. This could teach cultural respect and understanding while also demonstrate the ability for teenage girls to become themselves rather than what society deems acceptable or popular.
Uses: This would be a great book for a book club with a secondary-school female teen group. This could teach cultural respect and understanding while also demonstrate the ability for teenage girls to become themselves rather than what society deems acceptable or popular.
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