Celebrate Eid With a good book

With Eid al-Fitr just gone by this month, the library team have been thinking about how reading and stories can play a part in our celebrations on special occasions. We mark holidays in lots of different ways, but it has to be said: there's something special about a holiday story. It seems to wrap you up in warm, cosy feelings of festivity and fun. Sometimes a story can be a reminder of the meaning behind the holiday, or a way of feeling connected to others of your faith. 

Sometimes part of the sweetness in a story is its familiarity. Maybe you have stories that you tell or read every year at this time: religious stories, or family memories shared with laughter until you could recite them word for word. Even a new story can be familiar if you recognise your own experience in it. It can be comforting to think about all the people throughout the world and throughout time who have fasted for Ramadan and then celebrated Eid with joy, just like you.

Once Upon an Eid is a collection of short stories all about characters marking Eid. They are set in all different places, from Greece to Australia to New York City, reflecting some of the many Muslim communities around the world. The stories are full of funny, relatable, or thought-provoking moments. If you don't celebrate, you'll learn a lot, too; and if you do, you'll bask in that cosy, familiar feeling a holiday story can bring.

Once Upon an Eid is available in the school library.