Representation

Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad is an Olympian, a speaker, an activist, and a hijabi.  She proudly wears her hijab as a sign of her faith and her bond with Allah. In wanting all girls to be proud of their beautiful hijabs, along with author S.K. Ali and illustrator Hatem Ali, she wrote the book The Proudest Blue a story of a big sister and little sister on the first day of school.  

For big sister Asiya, today is the first day of hijab, carefully chosen before school starts in her most favourite colour: blue.  Little sister Faizah is so excited to walk with her sister to school, her sister like a princess in her brilliant blue hijab. When others make comments and taunts, the girls don’t keep those words like Mama tells them.  They are proud and strong. 

I was fortunate to see S.K. Ali speak at a literary event in Toronto and was captivated by her truths and convictions.  As parents and educators we have a duty to ensure we provide our children with many different perspectives. We need to share stories in our homes and classrooms not only about people with the same experiences as us, but broader experiences as well.  We live in a global community and we need to ensure our children recognize the value of living in a world of diversity. The Proudest Blue is a very important book for all young children, especially hijabi girls. It’s a story about having pride in who you are and what you believe. It’s a story about being proud of your family and your friends. In The Proudest Blue, Asiya and Faizah are extremely proud to be siblings. You can hear the love and pride all through Faizah’s voice in the story. She has confidence in her sister, in her family and in her friends at school and she is proud to tell everyone who asks about her sister’s hijab. We will be handing our children a world very different from the one we grew up in and we need to be sure they are prepared, armed with empathy, compassion, and a respect for perspectives that are different from our own.  Representation is the single biggest gift we can give to our children. We also need publishers to recognize the value of these types of stories and to promote Own Voices authors to ensure we have the materials to provide to our children.

This book is gorgeous!  Hatem Aly creates the most beautiful illustrations to go along with this beautiful story.  The richness in the text is thoroughly reflected in the flowing, deep blue illustrations. The characters are depicted with confidence and pride, just as the text describes.  The Proudest Blue was one of The Bee’s must have books from last year. She even refused to read it unless it was our own copy to keep so naturally I couldn’t say no.