Diversity

Book Review

For this task I read “Does my head look big in this?” by Randa Abdul-Fattah (2005) which explores the issues faced by second generation Palestinian-Australians. Amal is sixteen years old and attends a Grammar School where she is the only Muslim. For the first four years of high school she attended an Islamic school that only went to Year Ten. She decides that she is ready to where the hijab on a full-time basis to feel closer to god but there are many unexpected consequences of this decision. The part-time basis she was on before meant that she wore it whilst attending mosque and whilst at her Islamic school, but full-time means that she would wear it whenever around males that are not members of her family.

Among the issues she has to contend with are intolerance of Muslims because of the events of September 11 and the Bali bombings and her principle and peers believing her parents, her father in particular, are forcing her to wear the hijab when they in fact caution her about wearing it because of bullying. One of her class mates deliberately brings up news stories about middle-eastern people in an effort to make Amal feel ashamed. Additionally, her friends have issues of their own, one has to keep meeting with potential husbands when she would prefer to go to university rather than marry but her parents will not listen. One of her other friends is extremely conscious of her body image because of pressure from her family to lose weight.

The book gives a lot of information about the Islamic faith, detailing Amal’s experiences with different religious occasions such as Ramadan and a wedding for a family member. Reading about the religion in a fictional novel helps the information to remain more interesting than reading it in a factual manner. As a method of introducing or exploring religion, it works quite well as a starting point to be reinforced by more factual resources.

I really enjoyed the novel, particularly some of the references to locations around Melbourne and some of the inherent Australian references. It is really easy to connect with the protagonist, despite the level of religious beliefs within the book and she experiences real issues that are portrayed in a manner that is really believable. The way the story is written is almost exactly how I would expect a teenage girl to be thinking in the situations Amal is put in. I would happily recommend the novel to teenagers fourteen and up. 

I think it is important that librarians be aware of including in their collections books about diversity and that would appeal to the diverse public that will be present within their communities.