Does My Head Look Big in This?

Abdel-Fattah, Randa. Does My Head Look Big in This? New York: Orchard Books, 2007.

Does My Head Look Big in This? is the story of Amal, a Palestinian-Australian girl, who decides to wear the hijab (traditional head scarf) to school. As family, friends, and schoolmates react to this decision, Amal develops new understandings of her identity as a Muslim young woman.

Abdel-Fattah spends a fair amount of time at the beginning of the story establishing that Amal is a "normal" Australian. (She watches "Friends" on tv, worries about her weight, etc.). Although I found this to be a little heavy handed, overall I think Abdel-Farrah does a good job of illustrating the ways in which negotiating multiple cultural expectations can be tricky. The setting of the story, Australia at the time of the post 9-11 terrorist attacks in Bali, provides opportunities to explore the ways in which Muslims face prejudice and discrimination in day to day life.

I found a number of interesting reviews of the book, including one from the Muslim Village Forum which includes information about the author and comments from "insider" readers. VSW