Kids books that fight Islamophobia
Donation protected
West Philadelphia Coalition Against Islamophobia is raising money to donate books featuring Muslim kids to local neighborhood elementary schools. We invite you to join us in this exciting project making an important, concrete step towards building the self-worth of our young, Muslim community members and toward increasing intercultural understanding locally.
Children's literature should serve as both a mirror to children and as a window to the world, by showing people from diverse groups playing together, solving problems and overcoming obstacles.
When children never see their culture or religion represented in materials at schools or in books, the invisibility can be harmful to self-image. Additionally, negative stereotypes children have learned from news, television, and their surroundings are not challenged or addressed, and all too often internalized.
We’ve identified these neighborhood public schools as the priority for donations: Anderson, Barry, Blakenburg, Catharine, Cassidy, Comegys, Bryant, Harrington, Heston, Lea, Locke, McMichael, Penn Alexander, Powel, and Martha Washington.
If funding permits, we would like to donate to other local neighborhood, charter, and private schools and mosques so EVERY school in our area has these books!
We are looking for the best discounts so your donation will be used to buy as many books as possible. We estimate needing about $200 for each school, although larger schools could require multiple sets of books.
Here are the books we are donating:
Big Red Lollipop- Khan, Rukhsana
Deep in the Sahara- Cunnane, Kelly & Hadadi, Hoda
Four Feet, Two Sandals- Williams, Karen L & Mohammed, Khadra
Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns- Khan, Hena
King for a Day- Khan, Rukhsana
Lailah's Lunchbox: A Ramadan Story- Faruqi, Reem
Lost and Found Cat: The True Story of Kunkush's Incredible Journey- Kuntz, Doug
Moon Watchers- Jalali, Reza
Night of the Moon: A Muslim Holiday Story- Khan, Hena
One Green Apple- Bunting, Eve
Rashad's Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr- Bullard, Lisa
Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad- Rumford, James
Sitti's Secrets- Nye, Naomi Shihab
The Best Eid Ever- Mobin-Uddin, Asma
Under the Ramadan Moon- Whitman, Sylvia
They address a variety of topics including universal issues like sibling relationships, pets, kites and colors, but also specific cultural issues like related to Ramadan, Hajj, Eid, immigration, refugees, and language barriers. The stories include kids with family who came from Afghanistan, Iraq, Mauritania, Pakistan, Palestine, and United Arab Emirates. We are still open to hearing your suggestions of great quality, non-religious books featuring Muslim kids that would be appropriate for local schools, especially if they feature African-American Muslims.
Please join us in making this exciting project happen through your generous donation and SHARE with your friends, colleagues, and school communities to promote this fundraising campaign!
ABOUT US: The West Philadelphia Coalition Against Islamophobia is a grassroots group, with an emphasis on local action in West Philadelphia, whose aim is to fight against and raise awareness about Islamophobia in its visible, invisible and institutional forms through education for both Muslims and non-Muslims, community building, and political action against all forms of unacceptable behavior or speech directed at Muslims.
To find out more, check out our facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839863359618403/
Children's literature should serve as both a mirror to children and as a window to the world, by showing people from diverse groups playing together, solving problems and overcoming obstacles.
When children never see their culture or religion represented in materials at schools or in books, the invisibility can be harmful to self-image. Additionally, negative stereotypes children have learned from news, television, and their surroundings are not challenged or addressed, and all too often internalized.
We’ve identified these neighborhood public schools as the priority for donations: Anderson, Barry, Blakenburg, Catharine, Cassidy, Comegys, Bryant, Harrington, Heston, Lea, Locke, McMichael, Penn Alexander, Powel, and Martha Washington.
If funding permits, we would like to donate to other local neighborhood, charter, and private schools and mosques so EVERY school in our area has these books!
We are looking for the best discounts so your donation will be used to buy as many books as possible. We estimate needing about $200 for each school, although larger schools could require multiple sets of books.
Here are the books we are donating:
Big Red Lollipop- Khan, Rukhsana
Deep in the Sahara- Cunnane, Kelly & Hadadi, Hoda
Four Feet, Two Sandals- Williams, Karen L & Mohammed, Khadra
Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns- Khan, Hena
King for a Day- Khan, Rukhsana
Lailah's Lunchbox: A Ramadan Story- Faruqi, Reem
Lost and Found Cat: The True Story of Kunkush's Incredible Journey- Kuntz, Doug
Moon Watchers- Jalali, Reza
Night of the Moon: A Muslim Holiday Story- Khan, Hena
One Green Apple- Bunting, Eve
Rashad's Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr- Bullard, Lisa
Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad- Rumford, James
Sitti's Secrets- Nye, Naomi Shihab
The Best Eid Ever- Mobin-Uddin, Asma
Under the Ramadan Moon- Whitman, Sylvia
They address a variety of topics including universal issues like sibling relationships, pets, kites and colors, but also specific cultural issues like related to Ramadan, Hajj, Eid, immigration, refugees, and language barriers. The stories include kids with family who came from Afghanistan, Iraq, Mauritania, Pakistan, Palestine, and United Arab Emirates. We are still open to hearing your suggestions of great quality, non-religious books featuring Muslim kids that would be appropriate for local schools, especially if they feature African-American Muslims.
Please join us in making this exciting project happen through your generous donation and SHARE with your friends, colleagues, and school communities to promote this fundraising campaign!
ABOUT US: The West Philadelphia Coalition Against Islamophobia is a grassroots group, with an emphasis on local action in West Philadelphia, whose aim is to fight against and raise awareness about Islamophobia in its visible, invisible and institutional forms through education for both Muslims and non-Muslims, community building, and political action against all forms of unacceptable behavior or speech directed at Muslims.
To find out more, check out our facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839863359618403/
Organizer
Melanie Bartlett
Organizer
Philadelphia, PA
