Rukhsana Khan – författare

Join a young girl and her family in this Step 2 reader as they celebrate Eid-al-fitr, a holiday that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Perfect for readers ages 4-6.It's Eid-al-fitr—the last day of Ramadan, which means it is the last day for Rabia to fast with the rest of her family and she has never done it before. Rabia is so excited! She eats just before sunrise and then the day of fasting begins! Rabia gets to have her hands painted with henna, wear a new dress, and put her family's donation in the box at the mosque. It's a special Eid all around!Step 2 Readers use basic vocabulary and short sentences to tell simple stories, for children who recognize familiar words and can sound out new words with help.

Winner of the Middle East Book Award, Youth Fiction categoryJameela lives with her mother and father in Afghanistan. Despite the fact that there is no school in their poor, war-torn village, and Jameela lives with a birth defect that has left her with a cleft lip, she feels relatively secure, sustained by her faith and the strength of her beloved mother, Mor.But when Mor suddenly dies, Jameela's father impulsively decides to seek a new life in Kabul. He remarries, a situation that turns Jameela into a virtual slave to her demanding stepmother. When the stepmother discovers that Jameela is trying to learn to read, she urges her father to simply abandon the child in Kabul's busy marketplace. Jameela ends up in an orphanage.Throughout it all, it is the memory of Mor that anchors her and in the end gives Jameela the strength to face her father and stepmother when fate brings them into her life again.Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.