4 Books Set In WWII

Assalamu Alaikum!

Hanifah here and this week I'm doing another book recommendations post. I have always been interested in the events of WWII and have watched many documentaries about it and read lots of books set during wartime. Today I've selected four books I enjoyed that were set in WWII.

1. Number The Stars

by: Lois Lowry

Set in 1943 Denmark, this story focuses on the friendship between Annamarie Johansen and her Jewish friend Ellen Rosen. When the German troops begin "relocating" all the Jews of Denmark, the Johansens take in Ellen and pretend she is part of their family. Through 10-year-old Annamarie's eyes we witness the struggles of day-to-day life in Nazi-occupied Denmark, and of course the dangerous risk her family has taken in order to protect her best friend.

The book is an easy read and feels fresh and light-hearted while still managing to remain serious and realistic enough to be believable. Did you know that nearly seven thousand Danish Jews were smuggled across the sea to Sweden by the Danes? Thanks to their courage almost the entire Jewish population was saved.

I believe this book is suitable for children of all ages as it is quite simple and straightforward. It would also make a good read-aloud storybook.

2. Carrie's War

by: Nina Bawden

Carrie did, or at least believes she did, a dreadful deed in her youth that has always haunted her. She returns to the place where she and her brother Nick were evacuated as children during the war and memories come flooding back. They had been sent to Wales and ended up living with mean old Mr. Evans and his timid sister Miss Evans (or Auntie Lou). Carrie tries making the best of things and eventually they both adjust and settle in. They even make a few friends: Albert Sandwich (another evacuee) and the interesting people he is staying with at Druid's Bottom. However, Carrie still faces constant challenges from grumpy Mr. Evans to her younger brother's mischief.

Parental Guidance: a boy gives Carrie a kiss on her birthday. It is pretty innocent and not mentioned again in the book. If you're are reading the book aloud it could be skipped and would not make a difference to the story. I thought it worth pointing out though, just in case. I think this book is suitable for children ages 12+.

3. Waiting For Anya

by: Michael Morpurgo

Of course I could not resist including a Michael Morpurgo book in my selection! He truly is a master storyteller, and is definitely my favourite modern author. This book is about a 12-year-old goatherd named Jo and is set in the village of Lescun in France. Jo learns that old Widow Horcada is helping to smuggle Jewish children over the mountains to Spain. She needs his help and soon comes to rely on him to bring her supplies and assist her. His job becomes dangerous, however, when German soldiers start patrolling the mountains.

Waiting For Anya is an easy read and a bittersweet story that I could not put down until I had finished. It is also a short book around 190 pages and I believe it is suitable for children ages 10+.

4. Goodnight Mister Tom

by: Michelle Magorian

This book is about a young boy named Willie Beech who is evacuated to the Welsh countryside and sent to live with old Tom Oakley. Willie is a sad, deprived child and Mister Tom is a man who has shut himself off from everyone after the death of his wife. Both find comfort and healing in each other in this heart-touching story.

I cannot put into words how beautiful this novel is - especially given that it was the author's first one! This is the only book that I have ever read that actually made me cry and cry. You don't even have to be interested in WWII to enjoy this book and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an entertaining read. I think it is suitable for everyone but would be best appreciated by teens and adults, mostly because younger children won't understand the deeper, darker issues the book deals with.

Well, that is all for this week. I hope you enjoyed the post and that you take a look at some of these books. Leave a comment and let me know if you do; I would be interested to know what you think of them.

Take care and Wassalam,

Hanifah

Book Week Character

Assalamu Alaikum everyone!

Every year Sumayyah's school has a Book Week and on one of the days the students get to dress up as a character from a storybook. Our mum made Sumayyah this hijabi-friendly costume!

She is wearing a light purple skirt and a dark purple top.

As you can see the hair is quite long and reaches the ground.

Our mum made the braid out of two yellow scarves which she twisted together. She added hair bobbles that had flowers on them and a some jewellery to complete the look.

Can you guess which character she is?

Love and Wassalam,



Childhood Memories: Our Old Garden

Assalamu Alaikum everyone!

Today we wanted to do a post showing you some photos from our childhood home back in the UAE. We grew up in Ras Al Khaimah which means 'Head of the Tent' in Arabic. Ras Al Khaimah is located in the northern part of UAE and has the most fertile soil in the country. It even snowed up in the mountains of Ras Al Khaimah a couple of times, masha'Allah! Although we didn't see the snow, on a clear day we could see the mountains from where we lived.

When we first moved in it was just a small dusty town but it expanded and changed a lot over the years. In the early years we would see herds of goats and camels in our neighbourhood streets. And at night, packs of wild (and some abandoned) dogs would roam about scavenging. We all loved animals growing up and were always watching David Attenborough's wildlife documentaries and reading books. Our garden was the place where we spent most of our time. Since we had a lot of trees, masha'Allah, it attracted a wide range of birds, insects and other animals.

We kept chickens for many years for their eggs. The entertainment you can get from chickens is unbelievable. They all have different personalities and don't always get along. Some are bossy, others greedy and some are sweet and good-natured. Ours never failed to make us laugh.

This one was older than Sumayyah and was usually just known as The Cockerel. He was the only rooster we ever had and we used to call him the King of the Garden. That's because he had a very regal air about him; though he was actually quite humble and, at times, comical too. Masha'Allah, he was so patient, calm and loving towards his wives and chicks.

This was Coco (one of his many wives) and the only chicken that had babies. She was a good mother, masha'Allah.

Our mother had a pet tortoise named Hajar.

She was easy to care for as she spent most her time underground hibernating.

Our neighbours kept goats, chickens and ducks outside their home. We would see them often and sometimes, when they were let out, they would visit our garden and eat our trees and flowers! But we didn't mind.

As we mentioned before, our garden attracted a lot of animals. Here is a photo of Sumayyah feeding some pigeons. We tamed them and named them Flicks and Specks. These two ended up staying, had chicks and brought many more pigeons to our garden. There were around 7 to 10 pigeons visiting eventually. They were quite comfortable around us, mostly because we had food and pigeons are greedy birds.

Once our mother found this wild parrot on the floor outside and it seemed unable to fly. We fed it and it stayed with us for a few days before it regained its strength and flew away.

Masha'Allah, we were amazed by how bold and clever it was. It learnt that every time it dropped its food we would pick it up, so it began dropping it purposefully. So naughty!

 Since we had chickens (and sometimes chicks), cats often came to our garden and we had to chase them out. This one we named Katniss and she was allowed to stay as she didn't bother the chickens. She was a street cat and a brilliant fighter, so she ended up keeping other cats out for us.

She even brought her kittens to us and one ended up living in our garden. Sometimes we fed them but often Katniss would hunt and bring back food. We named the kitten Katherine but we called her Kitty for short.

Katniss and Kitty snoozing.

Masha'Allah, our garden had two Date trees, a Henna tree, a Neem tree, a Tamarind tree and another tree we didn't know the name of. The Tamarind tree, in particular, brought most of the wildlife to our garden. It was the youngest but grew to be the biggest.

At some stage there was a big beehive in it and this attracted these lovely green birds. We looked them up in a book and found out that they were called Green Bee-eaters. They were so beautiful, masha'Allah!

This is what they looked like.

Here are some clearer photos from the internet.

Even in a desert there are many different creatures to be found. The trick is to welcome and encourage them, then sit back and let them find you. It requires patience and understanding; you just can't rush nature.

Looking at our post we realised that it makes it look as though things had always been this way, or that it was easy for us to gain the trust of these animals. It only shows you the end result but in actual fact we spent hours 'taming' many of the birds and other animals. We practically lived in the garden, especially during the holidays!

We didn't have a TV or smartphones and things, so we had to entertain ourselves. This was a good thing though, alhamdulillah. It taught us to be more creative and to use our imagination. Our old garden will always be one of our favourite childhood memories, insha'Allah.

We hope you liked reading this post and getting a glimpse of the place where we grew up. We will see you in our next post, insha'Allah.

Wassalam,

Pancakes Recipe

Assalamu Alaikum everyone.

Maryam here. Today's post is a pretty simple recipe. In our family we really love pancakes, and for a while, I have been making them every Friday morning. It's very quick and easy so lets get started.

(Please keep in mind that this recipe makes a lot of pancakes, enough for 10 people)

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp. salt

6 tbsp. sugar

6 eggs, lightly beaten 

3 cups milk

3/4 cup water

Method:

Step 1. Sift (or whisk) together the flour, salt and sugar.

Step 2. Make a well in the centre, add the eggs and gently beat together.

Step 3. Add the milk and water and mix until the batter is smooth and thin.

Step 4. Apply a little butter or oil to a hot pan and pour one ladle of batter onto the pan, quickly rotating the pan so that it is covered with a thin layer of batter.

Step 5. Cook for 1 minute and then flip the pancake to fully cook on the other side.

Step 6. Once it is done, turn out onto a plate and serve hot.

There are lots of different fillings you can have with pancakes. My personal favourites are lemon and honey, date syrup and maple syrup topped with fruit. You can also fry some mushrooms with onions and cream cheese for a savoury filling.

Well, that's all. Hope you enjoyed it and see you next week, insha'Allah.

Wasalaam,

Maryam



Off On Our Summer Holiday

Assalamu Alaikum!

We are off on our summer holidays but insha'Allah we will try to continue posting as usual. However, we probably won't be as active for some weeks and won't be able to reply to any comments until we return. Hope you are all having a great summer!

Love and Wassalam,



Pages from our Journals

Assalamu Alaikum everyone!

This week we thought we would show you some pages from our Dua'a and Quran journals. We wanted to give you an insight into the way in which we journal and hopefully give you some inspiration as well, insha'Allah.
These pages are from when we started during Ramadan.
Here is Hanifah's book cover and spread.

Here is Maryam's book cover and spread.

These are some of Zainab's spreads.

And this is Sumayyah's spread.

Well, that is all for this post. We hope you all are enjoying your Summer Holiday and we look forward to seeing you again next week, insha'Allah.

Wasalaam,