Ayat Jamilah: Beautiful Signs: A Treasury of Islamic Wisdom for Children and Parents.

Bibliography
Conover, Sarah and Freda Crane. 2004. Ayat Jamilah: Beautiful Signs: A Treasury of Islamic Wisdom for Children and Parents. Illustrations by Valerie Wahl. Washington: Eastern Washington University Press.

Plot Summary
This book is a anthology of stories drawn from the Muslim culture from the various parts of world. Each story carries a message of either wit, generosity, or honesty, or love, or wisdom, or God’s message or words. There are many stories in this book that are inspiring like the stories of the famous Mullah Nasruddin Hodja, story of Islam’s important women like Khadija, the first wife of the Prophet, the story of Infant Jesus as is in the Quran, and the story of Hajar and Ismael from Hadith.

Critical Analysis
This book is a rare collection of stories that reflects the Islamic faith. The beginning of each story is adorned with sayings, words of wisdom, or the name of God. These words of wisdom can be truly touching and meaningful to the readers. Belief in the words, signs, and message of God is the central theme of the stories.

The authors have done an excellent work of gathering valuable stories and sayings from different sources like the Holy Scriptures, ancient texts, and imaginative tales. The authors have taken great effort to collect stories from other countries besides the Middle East. This allows the book to reach a diverse audience. This anthology not only serves as a great source of important stories for Muslim children and families, but also serves a unique way for students to learn about Islamic culture and religion. The book has also incorporated some stories that might be of interest to Christians.

The book is mostly didactic in nature and requires the ability to comprehend the deeper meaning in the stories. Therefore, this book is intended for older children. There are a few stories though that are humorous and easy to understand for the younger audience to enjoy. There are very few illustrations but since the stories are mostly intended for older children it is not intended to be a picture book. Illustrations are mostly in the form of decorations on plaques that display the words of wisdom at the beginning of each chapter. The fine artworks on these plaques closely resemble the Islamic art that are seen in Mosques. There are also many symbols written in Arabic language throughout the book and their meaning has been explained very well in the book.

The authors provide a very detailed Preface at the beginning of the book explaining the sources of the stories and the intentions of the authors in writing this book. The readers are also given a short background of the life of Prophet Muhammad who spread the word of One God, Allah. The authors have cited the sources of quotes at the end of book and have explained the sources very well.

This is must read book that will enlighten the readers day and hopefully their lives.