EDUCATION
Young Adult Books for Muslim Teens Teachers and parents should help Muslim teens select Islamic-themed Young Adult (YA) publications BY FREDA SHAMMA
T
eachers and parents looking for novels that portray Islamic values have always had a hard time. For example, only a few small books were available in 1969, but they were written for Muslims in South Asia and in the cheapest edition possible with no illustrations. The content was Islamic, but the style was not suitable for or appealing to American children. By the mid-1970s, the MSA and the Islamic Foundation in the U.K. began publishing a few fiction books. However, mainstream presses had no interest in publishing any books by Muslim authors. Fast-forward to today. There are several Muslim publishers (and of course mainstream publishers) and a gradual shift from books written by knowledgeable authors
with little or no writing talent to confident, talented writings by authors in their teens
or early 30s, some of whom have little or no Islamic knowledge.
WHILE WE WELCOME THE OUTPOURING OF LITERATURE FOR AND BY SKILLED YOUNG AMERICAN, BRITISH AND AUSTRALIAN WRITERS, WE ALSO NOTE A SERIOUS DILEMMA — MAINSTREAM PRESSES ARE NOW EAGER TO PUBLISH MUSLIM AUTHORS, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY INCLUDE GLIMPSES INTO MUSLIM CULTURE, BUT LOOK FOR BOOKS THAT PORTRAY ISLAM AND/OR MUSLIM CULTURES NEGATIVELY.
42 ISLAMIC HORIZONS MARCH/APRIL 2021
