Does My Head Look Big in This?

BOOK REVIEW: Does My Head Look Big in This?

CITATION:

Abdel-Fattah, Randa. Does My Head Look Big in This? New York: Orchard Books, 2005.

ISBN: 0439919479

SUMMARY:

A junior in a private high school in Melbourne, Amal is an Australian-Palestinian Muslim girl who decides to wear a hijab full-time. Dealing with normal stresses of being a teenager is complicated by the racism she faces, but she manages to gain perspective of herself, her life, and her dreams through the year by being supportive and showing support for the friends and family in her life.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS:

Does My Head Look Big in This? is an excellent book that opens our eyes to many differences and similarities to other cultures and religions, while still remaining a book that any teenager can relate to. Amal, the protagonist, is Muslim and decides she is ready to take her dedication to her religion a step further by wearing a hijab full-time, which means wear it in public at all times. She is in her junior year at a prep school in Melbourne, Australia, and she will be the only person wearing one. Within this story, there are various plots that include her crush on Adam, her friend Leila who runs away because of extremely strict parents, her elderly Jewish neighbor’s reunion with her son, her interactions with the school principal, and her overweight friends’ acceptance of herself. However, the main theme of the book is understanding, acceptance, and religious freedom. The reader learns about Islam, Muslims, Jewish people, Christianity, the difference between culture and religion, and they get a good sense of what it feels like to be stereotyped and judged for the color of one’s skin, the way one dresses, or the religion they choose. The story takes place post 9/11 when people are making sense of extreme terrorists, and Amal experience prejudices because of her hijab.

This book is stacked with cultural markers, starting with the large focus on Amal’s hijab. Abdel-Fattah does an excellent job of explaining what it is and the context of when it is worn. We learn both about Australian culture (parties, sweets, foods, language and schools), and a bit about the Muslim culture and the religion of Islam, told from Amal’s perspective. At one point, she is at a wedding for a Syrian and Afghani, with music, food, and lots of chatty parents. We also see many cultural markers through conversations between the teenagers and their parents. We see an honest conversation about rebelling as a teenager and trying new faiths from her friend Yasmeen’s mom. We learn about what orthodox Jews do to observe the Sabbath, and how an old cultural tradition in some villages in Palestine and is to marry very young, amongst other things. The book is stacked with cultural markers on each page. 

Amal explains towards the end, “What’s the good of being true to your religion on the outside, if you don’t change what’s on the inside, where it really counts? (p. 333)”. With a satisfying ending, Amal shows she has found and embraced her identity as a young Australian-Palestinian Muslim girl, who has her focus on the future.  

REVIEWS AND AEWARDS:

Australian Industry Book Award for Best Australian Book for Young Adult Readers (2006)

Top 100 New York Public Library Books for Teenagers

Publisher’s Weekly:

With an engaging narrator at the helm, Abdel-Fattah's debut novel should open the eyes of many a reader. Headstrong and witty, 16-year-old Amal, an Australian-Muslim-Palestinian (“That means I was born an Aussie and whacked with some seriously confusing identity hyphens”) decides during winter break from her posh private school that she's ready to wear the hijab, the Muslim head scarf, fulltime, as a testament to her faith. Amal knows she will face discrimination by classmates and misinformed people but she is committed to her decision; her parents are initially concerned, but ultimately rally behind her. Their worries, in fact, are well-founded: Amal attracts her share of stares and taunts both at school and around town, but she finds strength, not only from her convictions, but from her close-knit group of friends, who for various reasons—being Japanese, Jewish, nerdy or body-conscious—are perceived as being outside “the norm.” As Amal struggles with her identity in a post-9/11 world (“Do you have any idea how it feels to be me, a Muslim , today? I mean, just turn on the television, open a newspaper.... It feels like I'm drowning in it all”), her faith—and an array of ever-ready quips—help her navigate an often-unforgiving world. Using a winning mix of humor and sensitivity, Abdel-Fattah ably demonstrates that her heroine is, at heart, a teen like any other. This debut should speak to anyone who has felt like an outsider for any reason. Ages 12-up. 

Kirkus Reviews:

An “Australian-Muslin-Palestinian” teen opts to wear the hijab, the Muslim head scarf, full-time, embarking on a courageous exercise in self-understanding. Sixteen-year-old Amal attends an elite prep school in a Melbourne suburb. Poised to begin the third term of 11th grade, Amal admits, “it’s hard enough being an Arab Muslim at a new school,” but “shawling up is just plain psychotic.” Determined to prove she’s strong enough to “wear a badge of my faith,” Amal faces ostracism and ridicule as she dons her hijab with both good humor and trepidation. Supported by her parents, Amal spurns racial epithets like “towel head” and discovers her friends still accept her for who she is, not what she wears. As the term progresses, Amal’s friends face their own issues of self-worth while her faith is tested when she falls in love with a non-Muslim classmate. Wearing the hijab full-time shuts some doors, but opens others for Amal as she emerges a bright, articulate heroine true to herself and her faith. Abdel-Fattah’s fine first novel offers a world of insight to post-9/11 readers. (Fiction. 13-18)

CONNECTIONS:
After reading Does My Head Look Big in This? students can create their own book trailer for the book. After sharing their book trailers, the students can be directed to the author’s website at http://www.randaabdelfattah.com/vedios where a book trailer has been created for the book. The students can have the opportunity to compare book trailers, and then discuss how each person’s perspective of the story impacts the media book trailer presentations.