Noor Al Owais here.

Grandma Moudi is a Fashionista is a picture book by author/illustrator Maitha Al Khayat about a grandma who likes to travel around the world and go on adventures.

Grandma Moudi is a Fashionista

Author: Maitha Al Khayat Illustrator: Vanina Starkoff Published by: Kalimat (2017)  ISBN: 9789948181484 Languages: Arabic and Italian

Noura tells us about her grandma who she says is different from other grandmothers because she loves fashion and ice-cream just like Noura and her brother. One day the grandmother decides to take them to Italy, and then Noura, her brother and father think their grandmother is lost. They look for her but can’t find her. After searching for a while, they found her on stage in a carnival mask competition and she came in third, with her traditional burqa (mask). When they had first arrived to Italy, Noura asked her grandmother if she was going to remove her burqa but the grandmother was comfortable with it and told her everyone is different.

This is one of the books that my mother used to read to me when I was younger, and I still like it. My favorite quote is the title, and it’s towards the end when the brother says, “Grandma Moudi is a fashionista”, but in Arabic the words have a rhyme to it. At the end of the book, you have an explanation of Emirati words used in the book and instructions on how to make a burqa out of paper.

Themes in the book include fashion, family, UAE, traditions, travel, being unique, and having confidence in yourself.

The illustrator Vanina used eye catching, colorful illustrations to show many details. I especially liked how she showed the grandmother wearing the traditional jalabya as well as different types of clothing. I also noticed that she used colorful dots in almost all the pages, which was fun to find.

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Love In Ramadan

Author and Illustrator: Maitha Al Khayat Published by: Hudhud Publishing (2016) ISBN: 9789948136224 Languages: Arabic and English

Love in Ramadan is a book that explains what people like to do in Ramadan. It talks about people doing certain types of things that are usually only done in Ramadan such as fasting, breaking their fast in gatherings, listening to the call for the prayer when its time to break their fast. It also talks about things people do in their everyday life that they love to do, like reading, picking dates, going for bike rides, baking and sharing food, giving gifts and many other things that bring joy.

I liked this book because it talks about the holy month of Ramadan in a pleasant, different way. It shows that during Ramadan we can continue what we like, along with fasting. I started fasting because I wanted to try it when I was 8 years old. Although I did not fast for the whole month, I enjoyed fasting because it was something I could do with my parents and family. The illustrations of the book were also by Maitha Al Khayat and I found them splendid. I liked that the illustrations represented jalabya, loqaimat, palm trees and other different images that could be found in the UAE. My favorite character was the mom because she bakes and I also love baking and sharing my goodies with my friends.

I met the author/illustrator Ms. Maitha Al Khayat at Emirates Literature Festival 2024 this year. I attended a session where she spoke about her favorite childhood books, and how she was inspired to write her books. I purchased a book she illustrated called Farboo and she kindly signed it for me. Here’s a picture of me with Ms. Maitha Al Khayat.

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To know more about Maitha Al Khayat, please stay tuned for an interview with her conducted by Noor’s mother, Najla Al Owais, to be published on March 24, 2024 – Sunday.

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For #WorldKidLit Wednesdays throughout the month of March, we will have Emirati kid reviewers share their thoughts about the books that they read. In case you missed it, we had Abdulla Al Owais share his thoughts on a picturebook entitled Two Great Leaders last week.

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About the Guest Contributor for #UAEReads:

Noor Al Owais is from Sharjah, the UAE and is a 5^th grader at Ajman Academy. She likes to read, bake and cook. She loves figure skating and taekwondo and creating slime.

She also likes spends spending time playing outside, gardening and imagining all sorts of things.

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About the Guest Editor/Curator for March 2024 [#UAEReads]:

Myra Garces-Bacsal has served as a teacher educator for 15 years and has led several research projects on reading and social emotional learning, diverse picturebooks and teacher practices, psychology of high creatives and exceptional people, culturally responsive and inclusive education. She is a quintessential lover and creator of booklists (see her Social and Emotional Learning bookshelf here and other publications below). Myra serves as the Assistant Dean for Research and Graduate Studies with the College of Education, UAE University. She is a self-proclaimed nerd who lives and breathes books and enjoys organizing events and festivals where fellow nerds converge and attempt to joyfully change the world.

Publications on booklists:

Garces-Bacsal, R. M., Alhosani, N. M., Elhoweris, H., Tupas, R. (2023). A diverse social and emotional learning booklist for gifted learners and advanced readers. Roeper Review, 45(1), 25-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783193.2022.2145397

Garces-Bacsal, R. M., Alhosani, N. M., Elhoweris, H., Al Ghufli, H. T., AlOwais, N. M., Baja, E. S., & Tupas, R. (2022). Using diverse picturebooks for inclusive practices and transformative pedagogies. In M. Efstratopoulou (Ed.), Rethinking Inclusion and Transformation in Special Education (pp. 72-92). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-4680-5.ch005

Garces-Bacsal, R. M. (2021). Of grit and gumption, sass and verve: What gifted students can learn from multicultural picture book biographies. In S. R. Smith’s Handbook of giftedness and talent development in Australasian Pacific (pp. 431-453). Singapore: Springer International Handbooks of Education. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-981-13-3041-4_18

Garces-Bacsal, R. M. (2020). Diverse books for diverse children: Building an early childhood diverse booklist for social and emotional learning. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 22(1), 66-95. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798420901856