Yan’s Hajj – Book Review

All of a sudden at the start of Dhul Hijjah this year I started wondering if there are any children’s books about Hajj or Eid-ul-Adha, like we have about Ramadan and Eid ul Fitr. So I sat down to search and honestly I didn’t find many options (***Children’s books’ authors take note of this! We need more Hajj & Eid ul Adha books :D). From the few I saw online I bought Yan’s Hajj & one more. For sure Yan’s Hajj is the winner, especially for toddler age and even me :p

Let’s get to the review now in sha ALLAH:

Title: Yan’s Hajj, The Journey of a Lifetime

Written by Fawzia Gilani

Illustrated by Sophie Burrows

Published by The Islamic Foundation in 2018

This is a paper book with good quality pages. The story is roughly on 24 pages. Text is almost on all pages but it is not overwhelming either for toddlers or for parents. It is an easy read book, so you don’t feel like whennnn willll it endddd (oh boy, some children’s books surely make you feel that way)……..but yes, you will wonder if Yan will end up going to Hajj or no?

The story is primarily based on a young poor man who grows old over the story while constantly making effort to save up to go to Hajj.  This young man is a farmer with a kind heart, whenever he would save money and head out for hajj he would find someone in need and spend his money to help their problems. Later, he gets so old that he doesn’t even have enough energy to work hard at farm and is left with not much money for hajj but he still goes to hajj….HOW? Read to find 🙂 in sha ALLAH

The lesson: When you do good to others, good will happen to you.

To be honest, this book reminded me of my father….and in reality….all fathers….(though Yan’s character is not shown as father or have any mention of family)….who have so many dreams but they never get to fulfill those because they are busy fulfilling their children’s dreams….and when they get old they hope then their children will help them fulfill their dreams but children are too busy as adults to make their own lives and families. It is one of those things, who would you say is wrong but something surely needs to be fixed.