The Proudest Blue

This stunning picture book celebrates the beauty of the Muslim hijab tradition, the bond of sisters, and the strength to stand tall when bullied.Written by Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad, "The Proudest Blue" tells the story of two Muslim sisters attending school, the youngest watching with pride as her older sibling wears a hijab for the first time. Her pride soon turns to confusion when young Faizah witnesses other children taunting Asiya for looking different from themselves, for wearing what they mockingly call a "tablecloth." Faizah refuses to let the bullies diminish her pride, insisting on comparing her sister's hijab not to an inanimate tablecloth but to a strong, friendly, blue ocean in motion. She also figuratively joins her sister in wearing a hijab in the picture she draws of the two of them during class, then literally as she marches away from the schoolyard bullies, refusing to engage with them or allow their words to diminish her strength of identity. Asiya, too, stands resolute at the end of the day, smiling and strong, the two sisters even more bonded together than ever before.The illustrations beautifully reinforce the beauty, bonds, and strength emanating from the narrative. Illustrator Hatem Aly depicts the hijab with imaginative and emotionally evocative flair, giving it a life of its own. First filling the brilliant blue hijab with tiny clouds like a perfect day, then later bestowing it with the forward movement of irrepressible ocean waves, and finally wrapping it around the resolute face of Asiya with her unblinking eyes, Aly illustrates the hijab as a beautiful, unwavering presence in these girls' lives. That Aly refuses to grant the bullies faces on the page, but fills whole spreads with Asiya's countenance, denies hate even any pictorial power in this book. The connection drawn between the sisters--through hands held, footsteps in the other's shadows, and faces turned toward one another--comprise other attentive illustrative touches.This stunning book is a work of art that will not only mirror to its hijab-wearing readers their own internal strength but also present other readers with a humanizing portrayal of Muslim children and a compelling anti-bullying message.

Beautiful illustrations and an inspirational story

This book has been popular with my little free library! It has gone out and been returned a few times, but I have not seen it in a couple of months now. I am looking forward to seeing it again but if not, I take comfort in knowing that someone received this book and loved it too much to part ways with it!I am a catholic but thankfully, live in a pretty diverse community. My community includes those of the muslim faith and this book does a great job from child's POV. The book itself is about a young muslim girl who explains the hijab and what it means to her and how proud she is that her older sister is wearing her hijab for the first time and of course it is on a school day. It is not an intense book and does not quote scriptures. It is a proper children's book that articulates this first time experience including fears, excitement, coming of age, adoration, and being visibly different in some ways from others. I appreciated the book and apparently so do the members of my community.

I own a little licensed daycare/preschool. I’ve told every preschool/daycare provider I know about this book. We are doing an ‘around the world’ unit this summer and I have kids 3-5. I bought this book for the week we talked about Egypt & the Middle East. This book is beautiful to look at. As soon as the kids discovered this in our classroom they were FASCINATED. They couldn’t wait for the unit to come up for me to read it & asked every day. I’m in a weird little pocket of the PNW that is not very diverse. As a provider I loved that this book gave us the perfect opportunity to talk about and explore hijab without any kindof religious subtext to potentially concern parents. We talked about how the little sister was so proud of her big sister & her beautiful hijab. We talked about how the big sister was so strong and brave. We talked about how the words of the disrespectful boys in the story would make us feel and how the mother had taught the girls that hurtful words belonged to the people who said them and were not theirs to keep. It was such a *perfect* story to bring about the conversation of what hijab is, to help the children respect and appreciate the beauty in cultural differences.

I have been so excited to finally get my hands on this book! The cover art is brilliantly captivating and I am so excited to learn more about the hijab and see it represented in children’s books! When the book arrived, I was not disappointed! This is a beautiful story of sisterly love, friendship, courage, pride in your culture and beliefs, and acceptance. Yes there are bullies, but I loved that the sisters, Faizah and Asiya, also had great friends already who had their backs. Who accepted them without question. The art is bright and stunning. This is an excellent book!

Beautifully illustrated and adorable story

Lovely story. Read at bedtime for kids.

what really shines through in this story is the love between the two sisters. I also adore the sequel, The Kindest Red. Ibtihaj Muhammad is such an inspiration, not just for being a champion, but for sharing a part of herself in such a beautiful and kind way to teach others.