Nabeel's New Pants is a funny story about a kind man who buys gifts for his family and a pair of pants for himself. However the pants are four fingers too long and need to hemmed. In a big confusion somehow every ends up mistakenly taking four fingers off the pants until they are the length of shorts. They all come together and fix them just in time for the celebration at the mosque for Eid. The book introduces some basic vocabulary from the middle east and a small window into what normal family life is like there. It would be a useful and light book to use to teach about Islam or middle eastern cultures. The illustrations are cartoonish and would be interesting enough for a young reader. ( )

Nadeel buys gifts for his wife, mother, and daughter for Eid and buys new pants for himself even though they are 4 finger lengths too long. Everyone is too busy to hem them shorter for him. Nabbed decides to hem them himself then leaves for the day. While gone, his wife, mother, and daughter all decide to surprise him and each take off 4 finger lengths from his pants. When he puts his new pants on for Eid, he is shocked to find that they are now way too short and they all realize what happened. They work together to put back the lost length and fix his pants. ( )

This beautifully written story is about the Muslims most celebrated holiday. Nabeel as a shoemaker wanted to get his family gifts. He goes out and buys everyone gifts from a burqa for his wife, a dupatta for his mothers, and even some bangles for his daughter. This story was wonderfully humorous to me. Everyone is busy and Nabeel ends up shorting his own pants only to have his wife, mother, and daughter to also shorten it. The illustration by Proiti Roy is amazing. I love how she portrays all the characters, how beautifully detailed each page is. I also love how there is a glossary in the front explaining some words that are said in Arabic because though I know the meaning of these words, I know that for others that do not speak the language it is really useful. For example, Asalaamu alaikum and wa alaikum salaam are used to greet people while there are also words such as “Abbu” meaning father and “Amma” meaning mother. This story teaches young children about the special holiday celebrated by millions of Muslims around the world. It also teaches them about tradition. It is aa tradtion for gifts to be passed out every “eid.” ( )

One of the difficulties in being an adult who reviews children's books is an inability to truly understand what a child will find interesting. Sometimes, the sheer style of words and pictures can take the most mundane activity (e.g., baking a cake in the morning) and make it magical. Then there are stories about pants. Not even magic pants. Just pants that are, at first too long (spoiler alert!) then MUCH too short.

This book gets positive points for its exploration of another culture, but without any kind of glossary or further explanation, it's not even clear that this is focusing, probably, on South Asian Islam. Given that Islam is not an homogenous religion or culture (just like Christianity), the reader is left adrift. The word "Islam" doesn't even get mentioned in this book.

The illustrations are well done and present characters that seem likeable enough. The depictions of typical (unidentified) South Asian Muslim dress and food can likely lead to discussion if the book is read aloud in a classroom and includes questions and discussions. Since we also see three women, one in a burqa, one with a head-scarf, and one with uncovered hair, kudos for showing that Muslim women don't all dress alike. Again, no explanations, just ambiguous exposition.

I much prefer, and would recommend, My First Ramadan or Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns: A Muslim Book of Colors as being more direct and more interesting books for exposing younger children to Islamic culture and art.

I can only give this book 3 out of 5 stars because, in the end, it's just a tale about a pair of pants.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes. ( )

Generally speaking, I am delighted when I stumble upon some new retelling of a traditional tale, as I love to compare different interpretations of the same story. I am particularly pleased when I see that the folk or fairy-tale in question is long out-of-print, and that the new edition is making it available to young readers once again. Unfortunately, it looks like Fawzia Gilani-Williams' Nabeel's New Pants will be the rare exception to that rule.

The story of Nabeel the Shoemaker, who sets out to buy his wife, mother, and daughter gifts for Eid, it is clearly a retelling of the Turkish story of Trousers Too Long and Too Short, collected by Prof. Ahmet E. Uysal in a small village in southern Turkey, and retold in 1974 by Barbara K. Walker, in New Patches for Old. Some of the details have been changed: in the Ahmet/Walker version, Hasan the Shoemaker buys his wife a blouse, his mother a scarf, and his daughter some hair ribbons; whereas Nabeel buys his wife a burqa (some things apparently don't improve with age), his mother a dupatta (a head scarf), and his daughter some bangles. Ms. Gilani-Williams also gives her retelling a more specific time-line, making the upcoming festival a celebration of Eid, rather than the generic "holiday" anticipated by Hasan.

But although they differ in some details, these two stories are clearly the same, both in their structure, and in their resolution. The Library of Congress data on the colophon of Nabeel's New Pants even lists "Turkey-fiction" as the fourth subject heading for the book, indicating that someone involved in the production of this title knew about the story's origin. And therein lies the crux of the problem. Nowhere - in the jacket blurbs, on the title page or colophon, or in the text itself - is it made plain that this is a folktale. The "retold by" that precedes Ms. Gilani-Williams' name is the only hint that this is not her own original creation.

I've railed at folkloric retellings before, complaining of lack of attribution, but I don't think I've ever seen one that so completely obscured its source material, and the fact that it even was a folktale! If I hadn't been familiar with the Walker/Ahmet book - long out-of-print and not readily available - I would have just assumed that this story was Gilani-Williams' own, and I suspect young readers would do the same. There are far better Eid and Ramadan stories out there, and more straightforward folkloric retellings as well - I recommend the reader seek those titles out instead. ( )