Muslim Festivals (Festival Tales)

From School Library Journal Grade 2-4-These books include six or seven pieces: original stories and plays, along with traditional songs, poems, and recipes, each for a different festival. They conclude with factual information about each holiday, but it is on a more-advanced reading level. Consequently these titles, attractive as they are with colorful illustrations and border designs, have limited use as children not of the Jewish or Muslim faith must rely on older students or adults to interpret the material. Gilda Berger's Celebrate! Stories of the Jewish Holidays (Scholastic, 1998) is a family treasury with scriptural retellings, crafts, recipes, and explanations of what is celebrated and how. Leslie Kimmelman's Dance, Sing, Remember: A Celebration of Jewish Holidays (HarperCollins, 2000) and Faith Winchester's Muslim Holidays (Bridgestone, 1996) describe the festivals for young readers. However, Winchester's book includes a portrait of Muhammad, which is offensive to Muslims.