This second review is on a relatively popular book that has managed to reach a fair amount of people, though not as admired as the Twilight series.

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DOES MY HEAD LOOK BIG IN THIS? by Nur Syakirah bt Hamdan

Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah is a must-read novel which the element of Islam is well-portrayed. It's a story about a girl named Amal - a Muslim girl living in Australia. Before school reopened, she decided to wear the hijab (a head scarf worn by Muslim women) and because of her own decision she gets varying response from her family and buddies. To make matters worse, Amal had recently transferred to a very white-bread prep school, where the environment is completely different and it's going to be hard for her to fit in with that environment. She is inspired to wear the hijab when her best friends Yasmeen and Leila from Hidayah School wear the hijab full-time. At the McCleans Grammar School she also has friends, Eileen and Simone who are really understanding and always support her at whatever she's doing.

Amal is just a normal teenage girl. She loves shopping, gossiping, giggling with her friends and sometimes having a hard time with her parents and getting annoyed with her friends, especially Tia Tamos, Claire Foster and Rita Mason. She has a strong debating side of her personality with a value of doing what’s right and what will make everyone happy. She also has a strong value for her religion and what she believes in. She is a religious Muslim who prays five times a day, but she is also a normal teenage girl who likes to hang out with her friends, shop, have a girls’ night out, and even has a crush on a boy named Adam. She hates the fact that she can’t have a boyfriend, but is still satisfied with the relationship she has with Adam.

There are still a lot of problems that she has to face other than dealing with people who think wearing a scarf is weird and not-up-to-date-fashion. Case in point is when her friend Leila gets fed up with her mother's marriage set-ups and runs away. Amal has to deal with Leila's frustration over the fact that her mother is not practicing her religion correctly and Leila's mother's beliefs. Amal also has an aunt and uncle that are totally "Aussie" and do not follow Amal's religion at all, and question her why she, herself, follows it. Amal must also deal with a cranky Greek neighbor who has stopped talking to her only son because he converted. Amal becomes good friends with her and tries to coax her to talk to her son, after so many years of silence. I really love this book and I give this book 5 stars. I would like to recommend this book to all students to read it as it has lots of moral values. Besides, you can learn a lot more about Islam.

Rating : 5/5