Nura and The Immortal Palace

The ARC of this upcoming Muslim fantasy book made me smile so much!!

Genre: upper MG fantasy

Ages: 11/12-15

Available: Release july 2022

Islamic Screening- music, magic, jinn, jinn possession, building a magical bomb, arson, dancing (but all done in a kid carnival-like way and not in a scary way)gambling/casino-I do wish this was an arcade instead because Nura is portrayed as a practicing Muslim.

Nura’s dad has died and to help her mama out, she works at the mica mine instead of going to school. When her mom insists she stop, Nura knows its her last day mining, and tries one last time to find the “Demon’s Tongue”, a long lost treasure in the mines. But when her friend disappears saving her from a collapsing tunnel, Nura is frantic. In her search for him, she stumbles on a secret Jinn world. There, she must compete against the Jinn using only her wits, and if she isn’t out of the Jinn world by Eid Al-Adha’s third day, she will be stuck as a servant in that world forever!!!

Islam is included a lot- the islamic holiday being Eid al-Adha is a time for meat given out to the poor and celebrations , azan, maghreb prayer, muslim names, thank God for dinner and duaas for her dad in heaven, Quran, when morning prayer is skipped by adel his mom credits it to being devil whispers/the qareen-your jinn companion that is a trickster, Ayatul kursi being protection from jinn (translated and read aloud!), Qurbani, story of Prophet Ibrahim and the sacrifice of his son, halal meat, Ramadan, special Eid prayer, SubhanAllah. So so soooo much!!! I was impressed!

Desi touches include setting of Pakistan, lots of sweets like gulab jamun, Urdu, a bhangra dance competition, kurta and other desi clothing, and more.

The book was adorable, fun to read, and felt authentic to Desi Muslims (I felt it pretty clean and kid appropriate).

The story is well written and it all tied together neatly in the end!

Themes of the book include education, the exploitation of kids in poor areas, child labor, mining, family, friendship, and poverty. The author’s note about child labor/cheap products was so important and educating!

Def an interesting read and one I just adored❤️❤️

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