The Little Tree's Ramadan Adventure

I am just not sure about this book. I feel like it might be a folktale gone wrong- maybe lost in translation or something.⠀

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A man brings some dates from Tamara the date tree to a different tree friend, and they recount the old memories of traveling with each other (why would a man carry a tree with him in a pot, on a camel) and when they met Tamara the palm tree for the first time. She threw dates at them until they told her about Ramadan, when she calms down and asks more questions about Ramadan. After that, she started sharing dates with everyone and became known for her generosity. ⠀

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I felt like the Arabic parts were too long for a picture book format (and from what I read, they weren’t fully correct in Arabic writing/grammar) . Children aged picture books are usually aged 5-8, and even I felt the Arabic was lengthy and complicated for me, so how would kids, with their beginner levels of reading?⠀

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Honestly, by the end of it, I felt like I didn’t even understand what the story was about. I didn’t understand why different trees were so much a part of it, or why they were talking. I didn’t see any adventure, and by the end, I couldn’t even remember how the story started.⠀

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The part about explaining the virtues of Ramadan was good, albeit preachy, though I don’t understand why it was being explained to a palm tree. ⠀

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One part was talking about how Muslims should be like palm trees: dropping sweet date fruits even when “hit” with a rock. There is a moral to this- about always responding with sweetness even when someone might be saying something sharp to you. But it could also be dangerous- do we want our kids to be “hit with a rock” and still be sweet? I would want them to come tell me and stop the rock from hitting them...(I just feel like this moral goes over kids heads)

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