Children's authors from within our community

Book series both entertains and reflects Muslim kids
First published in Ottawa’s Muslim Link Newspaper, April 2009

The glossy pages, creative artwork, and catchy rhymes in stories like, “Castle Park”, or “Down the Hill we go”, could be mistaken for belonging to a typically mainstream children's book.

But look closer, and notice characters that don't quite fit the Western “norm”. Girls in hijab going to the park with mothers, similarly dressed. Boys that yell “ya Allah!” in sheer happiness, as they sled down steep hills.

The books from Markham-based “Kids will be kids” publisher, launched last year, are far different from the typical Muslim fare we usually read to our children. And while many of Islamic books are indeed improving in style and substance, this made-in-Canada series for children ages 3-7 stands out for a particular reason: it's simply about Muslim kids having fun in their own neighbourhoods.

Nabeel Akbar is the author and publisher. He spoke with the Muslim Link.

Q: What made you decide to start writing these books?

A: I have a lot of younger cousins that I read to, as well as my niece and nephew, and while reading Islamic children’s stories, I felt that they were missing an element of fun and adventure. Unlike mainstream books, many of the Islamic books weren’t exactly kid friendly, and it seemed that they were just trying too hard to drive home a lesson or moral. Eventually, I thought to myself, “Man, I can write a fun story for Muslim kids” – and at the time I was looking for something to busy myself with aside from my job – so I started writing. Since the majority of Islamic books never went outside things like Salaat, Ramadhan, Eid, Haj and so on, I figured I would just stick to the kind of fun activities or games kids play. I just wanted the character’s names, dress, and way of speaking to be enough to show them as Muslims.

Q: How did your own experiences growing up in Canada shape these books?

A: Growing up in Canada definitely had a huge part shaping these books in two ways. We don’t always realize the abundance of children’s books available to us here So many of these mainstream books are full of imagination, adventure and wonder. The stories are very creative and original, as is the artwork. I wasn’t a big reader as a child, but I did read a fair share. Stuff from Robert Munsch and similar authors were always a lot of fun to read. Those types of books played a part in shaping my own writing, and then of course there was my own childhood. I grew up in the suburbs, and there were quite a few kids in my neighbourhood that were the same age range. And all of the kids were of different races or colour, which is something I wanted to try and show in my stories, because I think it’s a great reflection of not just Canadian kids but Muslim kids. We were outside all the time. Winter was snowball fights and tobogganing, summer was spent playing neighbourhood games, sports, swimming and water fights. So when I sat down to write, I was able to draw upon these experiences as well as the books I had read and what I had like about them.

Two of my books, Down The Hill We Go, and Summer Splash (not yet published) are directly from my childhood. There was a community center where we would ride our bikes to in the summer to go swimming, and it also had an enormous hill which in the winter was full of kids sledding. There were a few times in the winter when we just walked it there cause we couldn’t get a ride. It was about 2km away, walking in the snow, dragging our sleds behind us!

Q: What was the first book you wrote? What was it like to see it published?

A: The first book I wrote was Down The Hill We Go, but the first book to be published was To Catch A Bug. When I first sat down to write, I remembered how we would build ramps out of the snow and jump our sleds over them and built the story around that. It took me four days to write it, I then showed it to my wife who really liked it, then to the rest of my family. Everyone thought it was good, and that really encouraged me to write more. I thought about doing a series of books and within a month I had completed Neighbourhood Safari (not yet published), Castle Park and Summer Splash. I thought “Daze of Fun” was a good title for the series. Next I wanted to write a few shorter stories, but something with a twist or joke at the end. After some time I had Midnight Snack, To Catch A Bug and Colours of My Imagination. The idea for To Catch A Bug came from a charity picnic we attended. My niece and nephew were picking up caterpillars from a tree, when they saw how terrified my wife and sister were, they started to chase them around with the caterpillars! I wanted to first publish one of the shorter stories and as I felt equally about those three, I let my artist decide which one she wanted to do first. I remember when the completed hardcover copy came in the mail. Alhamdulillah, it was a great feeling. I was very happy with the way it came out. Another thing which I felt good about was that I had accomplished something which could potentially be a lasting contribution to the community- something people could enjoy and perhaps even benefit from.

Q: How challenging has it been to get this series started? What challenges remain?

A: I wouldn’t say it’s been hard, but it definitely has been challenging. I waited almost a year to hear back from publishers – due to some of the content, I was only sending it to Islamic book publishers – so there weren’t that many. All of them declined, some said they didn’t even read the manuscripts because they were too busy. The books were written in rhyming verse, and one publisher replied back that they weren’t looking to publish poetry, but if I have a children’s story, then they will look at it. It was pretty frustrating because I felt they were unable to understand the idea behind them. I decided that I would just self publish them which wasn’t difficult. One of the publishers, Kube Publishing (formerly known as Islamic Foundation of UK) agreed to be the distributor, but I had to pay for all the book printing costs, which can be quite expensive – not to mention the artist fees. I then came up with the name Kids Will Be Kids for my publishing company and thought about putting together a website once the first few books were ready. Finding an artist wasn’t too difficult as my sister had a friend in art college and I also had a friend who is a really talented illustrator.

Q: What do you think about the state of literature for Muslim children and teenagers here in the West? What's needed and why?

A: I think Muslim children’s English literature is growing and starting to evolve from more than just books whose only focus are teaching Islamic principles and practices. Since I have started I have been contacted by several writers who also want to write similar books for Muslim children, and also for teens. There are only a handful of short novels available for Muslim teens, and we definitely need more. It’s very important for children and youths to have Muslim characters and heroes that they can identify with. Fiction is also something that can really help develop a creative and imaginative mind. Inshallah, I really do hope that more writers step up, take some risks and start writing good teen novels for Muslims. Having said that, Islamic Book publishers are really the ones that need to take the risks and do more to encourage writers to step forward.

Q: How should the Muslim community support these sorts of initiatives?

A: The Muslim community needs to support these initiatives by investing in them for their children. I say invest and not buy or purchase because books really are an investment in your child’s future. Unfortunately, many parents don’t make that connection. Children’s books are viewed as another toy for the toy box. I’ve had a few booths at various Islamic events in North America where several children will beg their parent to get a book for them, but the parent will scold the child about wasting money. Once, after I had held a book reading session, a little girl brought her father to our booth and told him how much she loved one of the stories I had read and if he could get it for her. He just laughed and said “why do you want to buy it when you already know what happens?” A good book is something a child will read several times over. This first love of reading will help them develop a passion for all books, fiction and non-fiction. I don’t think I need to mention how important reading is for a person! So getting back to the question of support, the Muslim community needs to invest in these type of initiatives, and those with younger children should go a step further by spending time frequently reading to their children.

Q: Future plans?

A: Well, Alhamdulillah, I have several stories completed, and I’m just dying to get them published and out there, but I have to first wait until the books I’ve released show some more progress. So far, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and is giving us a good idea of what people liked and disliked and how we can improve on future books. So keep watching for us!

Jazakallah khair for giving me this chance to talk about what we’re doing, it’s been a pleasure speaking with you.

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To find out more, visit kidswillbekids.org, or stay tuned for more information from your Grade 2A teacher : ) !