Ramadan Mubarak to our neighbors! We’re sad we can’t be together this year to celebrate at our Ramadan READy program. So I looked through our digital collection to find stories and nonfiction you can access without leaving the house.
You can also put holds on library materials to pick up at the drive-thru window! If you would like to create any of the crafts we did in the past, or find some new ones to do this year, check out the links at the bottom of this article.
Books from our Digital Collection
Axis 360
Axis 360 has two Ramadan books: the picture book It’s Ramadan, Curious George, and a nonfiction book. In the past, I have made Ramadan a time to feature books about Muslims.
If you search “Muslim Juvenile” in Axis 360, you can find picture books like Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns, Deep in the Sahara and Never Say a Mean Word Again. You’ll also find chapter books like The Night Diary (also available as an audiobook), Power Forward and Helping the Polonskys.
Searching “Islam* Juvenile” will bring up the chapter book Nowhere Boy as well as nonfiction, including biographies such as Who Was Muhammad Ali? (also an audiobook). You can find more biographies on people like Malala Yousafzai or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar by searching their names.
BiblioBoard
BiblioBoard doesn’t have Ramadan books, but it does have The Bird Feeder of Istanbul, The Stone Lions (a historical fiction chapter book incorporating magic) and another biography of Malala.
hoopla
hoopla has one of the newest Ramadan picture books, The Gift of Ramadan, plus more picture books and lots of nonfiction (including an audiobook and a book in Spanish).
You can also search “Muslim” or “Islam” to find the new nonfiction book Muslim Girls Rise in a variety of formats, Eid stories, the new chapter books Badir and the Beaver and A Race to Prayer, books about religion for Muslim children, and many more titles. And since hoopla has comics, you can also read Ms. Marvel!
OverDrive
OverDrive only lists Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns among its available titles, but it does allow you to recommend books for purchase. If you see a Ramadan book the library should purchase, please let us know!
TumbleBooks
On TumbleBookLibrary I found two books about real-life Muslims, The Librarian of Basra and Champion: The Story of Muhammad Ali. There is also a story in Spanish, El Cielo de Afganistan, about a girl flying kites and thinking about peace.
Music
I did not find any music for Ramadan in our digital collection that appeared to be for children. To the best of my understanding, there are a variety of opinions within the Muslim community about when music (and what types of music) is appropriate.
The Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) website includes a lovely video of the song Ramadan Moon, featuring children singing with rhythm instruments, as well as songs from a children’s album.
Activities and Crafts
The organization Ramadan READy has PDFs of printable crafts and activities (just scroll down beneath the books), including the paper lanterns people decorated at the library’s first Ramadan program! You can find printable crafts and activities from 2019 and 2018 on their website, as well. If that’s not enough, Activity Village also has materials for Eid, including craft ideas, coloring sheets and greeting cards.
You can find even more titles about Ramadan and Eid listed on our old Children’s Services blog:
- Ramadan READing (from 2017)
- New Picture Books for Ramadan and Eid (from 2012)