From a crescent moon to a square garden to an octagonal fountain, this breathtaking picture book celebrates the shapes—and traditions—of the Muslim world. Sure to inspire questions and observations about world religions and cultures, Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets is equally at home in a classroom reading circle and on a parent’s lap being read to a child.
I previously shared my love of Hena Khan’s picture book Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns: A Muslim Book of Colours, and I’m thrilled to see that she is pairing again with illustrator Mehrdokht Amini, this time to create a Muslim book of shapes.
As in her previous book, Khan uses rhyming couplets to introduce readers to aspects of Muslim faith and culture.
The book touches on music, food, clothing, prayer, and community, interspersed with Arabic vocabulary. Each page is awash in vibrant colour and beautiful detail, and filled with life and energy.
A comprehensive glossary explains the Arabic vocabulary, while an Author’s Note introduces readers to the importance and history of shapes and geometry in Islamic art, architecture, and design. According to the Author’s Note, each spread depicts a different country, highlighting the incredible diversity of Islamic cultures, which are bound together by a shared religion, but which add their own individual aspects to the celebration of that faith.
Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets is a beautiful follow up to Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns, offering another beautiful, sensitive, thoughtful celebration of Islamic art, culture and faith.
Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets
Hardcover, 32 pages
April 10, 2018 : Chronicle Books
Source: Raincoast Books