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alyshadeshae's review against another edition
3.0
I had a few issues reading this book - mostly the tone of "shallow child who thinks she's deep" that never really goes away and some oddly stilted dialogue.
However, I still enjoyed the book, thought it was well done, and it was a fascinating insight into an American teenager's experience as a Muslim. Although I would love to hear from others about it's accuracy.
However, I still enjoyed the book, thought it was well done, and it was a fascinating insight into an American teenager's experience as a Muslim. Although I would love to hear from others about it's accuracy.
ruthelibrarian's review against another edition
2.0
Bestest. Ramadan. Ever. is a story about a 15 year old girl named Almira and her struggles during Ramadan. Almira is a Muslim, so during Ramadan she has to fast until sun down, can't have a boyfriend, and her grandpa is pretty traditional.
Bestest. Ramadan. Ever. is Sharif's first book ever and it certainly shows. The story is written in first person POV, but that is no excuse for the amount of rambling that is prevalent throughout the book. On a positive note, I could really get a sense that Almira was a Muslim struggling between her religion and her own desires around the last third of the book.
Bestest. Ramadan. Ever. is not the most impressive read and Medeia Sharif has room to grow. There is definitely potential for narratives about American Muslims, but she fell just a bit too short of her goal.
Bestest. Ramadan. Ever. is Sharif's first book ever and it certainly shows. The story is written in first person POV, but that is no excuse for the amount of rambling that is prevalent throughout the book. On a positive note, I could really get a sense that Almira was a Muslim struggling between her religion and her own desires around the last third of the book.
Bestest. Ramadan. Ever. is not the most impressive read and Medeia Sharif has room to grow. There is definitely potential for narratives about American Muslims, but she fell just a bit too short of her goal.
crystal_reading's review against another edition
I saw this on the shelf at the library and realized I had never heard of this one so I picked it up. Ugh. I am not Muslim, but by this time have read quite a few books by and about Muslims. This one is not the one I'd recommend if someone wants a book about Ramadan or a book with a Muslim main character. Before even dealing with the Muslim representation, the writing seems very forced and contrived. This includes the dialogue, but the writing also is fairly simplistic and the plot is very predictable throughout.
Next, the weight issue. Almira complains about her weight and this is a huge deal for her and yay - Ramadan is helping her lose weight. What? Let's just say body positivity is not a part of this book.
Also, the characters are very flat. Her best friend is boy obsessed and academically unintelligent. That's really all we know. Her grandfather is more nuanced, but not by much. He calls any annoying woman a prostitute. He's cantankerous, more conservative religiously than her parents and smacks his car into trash cans & mailboxes. All we know about her mom is that she is more forward thinking than her parent's generation, she super attractive to men & she exercises pretty much all day.
Finally, I know there are many ways to live life as a Muslim, but there is not much here that would lead anyone to believe that there is a good reason to be Muslim. Of all the characters in the book, I'm not sure if any of them made it seem like Islam was a good thing except the one mosque experience. I'm not sure how to explain this better. I was bothered by many things in the book and had these thoughts before writing my review, but scrolling through Goodreads reviews, it seems this book maybe went over better with people unfamiliar with Islam and many reviews only confirmed what I had felt while reading.
Books that do it better: The Lines We Cross & Love from A to Z
Next, the weight issue. Almira complains about her weight and this is a huge deal for her and yay - Ramadan is helping her lose weight. What? Let's just say body positivity is not a part of this book.
Also, the characters are very flat. Her best friend is boy obsessed and academically unintelligent. That's really all we know. Her grandfather is more nuanced, but not by much. He calls any annoying woman a prostitute. He's cantankerous, more conservative religiously than her parents and smacks his car into trash cans & mailboxes. All we know about her mom is that she is more forward thinking than her parent's generation, she super attractive to men & she exercises pretty much all day.
Finally, I know there are many ways to live life as a Muslim, but there is not much here that would lead anyone to believe that there is a good reason to be Muslim. Of all the characters in the book, I'm not sure if any of them made it seem like Islam was a good thing except the one mosque experience. I'm not sure how to explain this better. I was bothered by many things in the book and had these thoughts before writing my review, but scrolling through Goodreads reviews, it seems this book maybe went over better with people unfamiliar with Islam and many reviews only confirmed what I had felt while reading.
Books that do it better: The Lines We Cross & Love from A to Z
violetamethyst's review against another edition
2.0
This is a very light read and more appropriate for younger girls but it's the first book I've read with a Muslim protagonist. I usually don't read that kinda thing because I get pretty sick of my own religion sometimes. But I love Ramadan and its really the only religious thing I do. Still though, the way we go about it and the way its described in this book is very different. For this girl, its all about the food. There's no mention of the other things we should abstain from in order for our fast to be valid. I really don't know if this is a cultural difference of if for some Muslims it really is just about food. But I enjoyed the honesty of some aspects of this book. I enjoy losing a few pounds in Ramadan too, I have that folder of hot guys I would never let anyone in my family see...and of course, the slightly deeper issues, the 'jokes' about finding a husband for me, the fear that if I fall in love with a non-Muslim or even a Muslim my family doesn't approve of that it would destroy my relationship with my parents.
Anyway, all in all this is a good book for teen girls. 3 stars.
Anyway, all in all this is a good book for teen girls. 3 stars.
operasara's review against another edition
4.0
Bestest. Ramadan. Ever by Medeia Sharif follows Almira a Muslim girl who is trying to have her first successful Ramadan fast. The members of Almira's family differ in how devout they are from her grandfather disapproving of anything American to Almira herself who appreciates her heritage but also wants to be able to have a boyfriend and wear makeup. The story follows Almira through her month of Ramadan while she tries to balance her families traditions with the American lifestyle that her friends have.
This is a cute and funny book about an immigrant trying to make sense out of the complex world that she lives in. Trying to figure out how to be Muslim enough for her parents but American enough for herself. The book doesn't do a great job at showing readers what it's like to be an Islamic teenager. Islam and her families culture is seen more as a burden and the reader isn't given many positive aspects of the religion to balance out the negatives. However, I loved Almira and was engrossed in her story and finished the book quickly. The author did a fantastic job at creating characters that the reader cares about and there are lots of funny moments in the book (like the comments that her English teachers writes on her daily journal entries).
Appropriateness: There is not any adult content in this book. This is a light hearted fun contemporary novel that will be enjoyed by readers 11+
This is a cute and funny book about an immigrant trying to make sense out of the complex world that she lives in. Trying to figure out how to be Muslim enough for her parents but American enough for herself. The book doesn't do a great job at showing readers what it's like to be an Islamic teenager. Islam and her families culture is seen more as a burden and the reader isn't given many positive aspects of the religion to balance out the negatives. However, I loved Almira and was engrossed in her story and finished the book quickly. The author did a fantastic job at creating characters that the reader cares about and there are lots of funny moments in the book (like the comments that her English teachers writes on her daily journal entries).
Appropriateness: There is not any adult content in this book. This is a light hearted fun contemporary novel that will be enjoyed by readers 11+
librarykristin's review against another edition
2.0
full review will be published elsewhere...but this one is a mixed bag
jemifraser's review against another edition
I really enjoyed this!! Medeia does a great job showcasing an almost-16-year-old trying to cope with her religion, her family (Grandpa is a riot!), her friends and her crush. It was a ton of fun watching Almira learn and grow (sometimes the hard way) throughout the book. A great read!
melbsreads's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars. Also reviewed on my Youtube channel.
I was pretty excited when I found this on the shelf at my local library. I mean, a Muslim American teenage girl struggling to balance the two halves of her identity during Ramadan? Uh, yes. And in some ways, that was what I got. Almira is 15 years old and, after a monumental didn't-even-last-a-day failure the previous year, has decided to participate in fasting for Ramadan for the first time. Unable to eat while the sun is up, she finds herself struggling through school, her friends taunting her with chocolate, and a growing crush on the cute boy in her science class. She's also taken aback when a new girl - who's ALSO Muslim - starts at the school, and is rather more...abrasive...than expected.
Almira discovers a lot about herself and her family in the course of this book. In the early stages, she's totally grossed out and embarrassed by her mother's fitness obsession and love of gym clothes. By the end of the book, she thinks it's great that her mother's found something that makes her happy. She also realises that her grandfather's attitudes towards women (if they don't dress the way he thinks women should dress, he calls them "prostitutes", and will even yell it out the car window at women walking past) are far more toxic than she'd thought.
So yes, in a lot of ways it was great to see a teenaged Muslim America narrator and the struggles she goes through attempting to maintain her fast.
BUT.
I absolutely loathed the obsession with Almira's weight that we're subjected to throughout. She starts the book by telling us that she's chubby and eats terribly and that she could probably lose a few pounds. She then tells us that she's a SIZE EIGHT. Which, NO. Over the course of the book, basically all her friends and family members tell her how much better she looks now that she's losing weight. And she basically only decides to start exercising at the end of the book so that she can stay a particular size. She spends entire days obsessed with food, asking her friends what they're having for dinner or lunch, and then telling herself that it will all be worth it once she's thin.
I just...ugh. Ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh. Teenage girls have enough to worry about without being told that a size 8 is fat. And there are so few books with Muslim American narrators that we *really* don't need one where the main character essentially treats a religious event as a diet.
So yeah. There was stuff that I liked, and stuff that I hated. And at this point, that's balancing out to 2.5 stars.
I was pretty excited when I found this on the shelf at my local library. I mean, a Muslim American teenage girl struggling to balance the two halves of her identity during Ramadan? Uh, yes. And in some ways, that was what I got. Almira is 15 years old and, after a monumental didn't-even-last-a-day failure the previous year, has decided to participate in fasting for Ramadan for the first time. Unable to eat while the sun is up, she finds herself struggling through school, her friends taunting her with chocolate, and a growing crush on the cute boy in her science class. She's also taken aback when a new girl - who's ALSO Muslim - starts at the school, and is rather more...abrasive...than expected.
Almira discovers a lot about herself and her family in the course of this book. In the early stages, she's totally grossed out and embarrassed by her mother's fitness obsession and love of gym clothes. By the end of the book, she thinks it's great that her mother's found something that makes her happy. She also realises that her grandfather's attitudes towards women (if they don't dress the way he thinks women should dress, he calls them "prostitutes", and will even yell it out the car window at women walking past) are far more toxic than she'd thought.
So yes, in a lot of ways it was great to see a teenaged Muslim America narrator and the struggles she goes through attempting to maintain her fast.
BUT.
I absolutely loathed the obsession with Almira's weight that we're subjected to throughout. She starts the book by telling us that she's chubby and eats terribly and that she could probably lose a few pounds. She then tells us that she's a SIZE EIGHT. Which, NO. Over the course of the book, basically all her friends and family members tell her how much better she looks now that she's losing weight. And she basically only decides to start exercising at the end of the book so that she can stay a particular size. She spends entire days obsessed with food, asking her friends what they're having for dinner or lunch, and then telling herself that it will all be worth it once she's thin.
I just...ugh. Ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh. Teenage girls have enough to worry about without being told that a size 8 is fat. And there are so few books with Muslim American narrators that we *really* don't need one where the main character essentially treats a religious event as a diet.
So yeah. There was stuff that I liked, and stuff that I hated. And at this point, that's balancing out to 2.5 stars.
the_lilypad's review against another edition
1.0
I 'picked this up' from the New Hampshire library online on a dreary, cold Hobart day which seemed perfect for some fluffy, non-thinking young adult reading, I was sorely disappointed.
I was excited to see some diversity, but annoyed by the constant obsession with weight (size 8 - according the internet, size 10-12 is average...?) and also the whiny. SO WHINY. I can empathise with some of the whiny because I can only imagine how HANGRY one would get fasting during Ramadan. It was excessive whining making none of the characters interesting.
Diversity good.
Book not good.
I was excited to see some diversity, but annoyed by the constant obsession with weight (size 8 - according the internet, size 10-12 is average...?) and also the whiny. SO WHINY. I can empathise with some of the whiny because I can only imagine how HANGRY one would get fasting during Ramadan. It was excessive whining making none of the characters interesting.
Diversity good.
Book not good.
satin's review against another edition
1.0
Sadly, a very disappointing read in my opinion. The main character is 15, yet acts like she’s 2 years old... she’s always whining or obsessing over boys. At most I felt like she was a middle schooler! The book is not a good rep for the Islamic community, I have read far far better. Also note, who puts bestest in the title of a book