The Proudest Blue
Written by Ibtihaj Muhammad and S.K. Ali
Illustrated by Hatem Aly
Little, Brown and Co., 2019, 40 pp
ISBN: 978-0-316-51900-7

This New York Times best-selling picturebook is about two sisters who take pride in wearing a hijab as a testament to their faith and culture despite facing individuals who are not accepting of their traditions. The illustrations on the front endpaper start the story by showing a mother and her two daughters looking excited as they walk toward the hijab store in a U.S. context. The story continues by showing the family picking out a hijab for the first day of school for the oldest daughter, Asiya, who will be wearing a hijab for the first time. Faizah, the youngest sister, is excited when she sees her sister wearing the bright blue hijab they had picked out. Faizah cannot help but admire her sister wearing her brand new vibrant blue hijab as they head to school and cannot wait to get to wear one herself. Once they arrive at school, Faizah encounters a situation where a student becomes confused as to why Asiya is wearing a hijab and begins to notice how some students are disrespectful and making fun of her sister throughout the day. Faizah tunes out the negativity by reminding herself of her mother’s wise words and the beauty of the hijab which leads her to realize how strong her sister is by not letting these instances faze her. At the end of the day, Faizah and Asiya walk home and Faizah realizes that wearing a hijab is an action that is powerful, yet natural at the same time.

This picturebook does an excellent job of showcasing a child’s experience of going through a change, in this case a child witnessing a sibling wearing a hijab to school for the first time. It also conveys the strong message of embracing one’s culture and identity to the point that when other people express negativity, they are not hindered. This book celebrates being proud of who you are and what makes your culture unique as well as the support system families provide against some of the world’s injustices.

Hatem Aly’s style of illustrations include the use of vibrant and bright colors. Aly seems to use colors to depict the mood of the story. For instance, in one scene, bright colors such as yellow, white, and baby blue show happiness or calmness. In a different scene, dark and smoky colors seem to depict the sources of negativity. Aly uses ink washes and colored pencils on watercolor paper to create texture within his illustrations. Most of the illustrations are double-page spreads with all illustrations bleeding out to the edge of the page, giving the reader a lot of detail to take in and helping to form one narrative along with the words on the pages.

Books that could be paired with The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammed and S.K. Ali are Under My Hijab by Hena Khan (2019) and Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o (2019). Under My Hijab is a story about a young Muslim girl who admires the women in her life who wear a hijab and shares with the reader that the women under the hijab are just like any other human. The little girl also shares her excitement about being able to one day wear a hijab of her own. This book normalizes accepting people as they are as well as respecting how they chose to show their love for their faith and culture. Sulwe is the story of a young Black girl who is dealing with negativity from others due to her dark skin. She realizes the privileges that people with lighter skin receive because of the positive treatment that her sister gets for her lighter skin tone versus the negative treatment that she gets for her dark skin. This issue of colorism affects her, and she tries to find ways to lighten her skin. Her mother reminds her of her beauty and, through the adventures that a shooting star provides her, Sulwe has the opportunity to realize the beauty that all people of different skin colors bring to the world. The story ends with her appreciating her skin color as not less than anyone else’s skin tone.

Ibtihaj Muhammad is a U.S Olympic medalist and social activist who was born and raised in Maplewood, New Jersey. As she was growing up, Ibtihaj’s African American parents looked for a sport that would permit her to wear her hijab as faith is very important to the family, leading her to become a sabre fencer. She graduated from Duke University in 2007 and in 2010 became a member of the United States National Fencing Team. She is famously known as the first woman to wear a hijab while competing in the Olympics. She recalls that growing up she didn’t see herself represented in picturebooks and wanted to be able to provide this opportunity for other girls that look like her. She wanted to give them a chance to not only feel represented, but to realize that they are not alone and should embrace their culture proudly. This passion led her to create her first picturebook The Proudest Blue. To find out more about Ibtihaj Muhammad, visit her website.

K. Ali is an Indian-Canadian author who was born in South India and moved to Canada at the age of three. She discovered her talent for writing when she was 10 and decided she wanted to become an author. She attended York University where she received a degree in creative writing. She is a critically acclaimed author who has written several books that have received many recognitions such as the New York’s Times bestselling list and the APALA Honor Award. Some of her books include Saints and Misfits, a finalist for the American Library Association’s 2018 William C. Morris Award as well as Once Upon an Eid, a winner of the Middle East Book Honor Award and a Kirkus and School Library Journal best book of 2020. To find out more about S.K. Ali visit her website.

Hatem Aly is an Egyptian-born illustrator whose work has been featured on television and in multiple publications worldwide. His work varies from editorial illustrations to illustrations in children’s books, storyboards, and comics. He has worked with publishers, including HarperCollins and Scholastic. He currently lives in Brunswick, Canada with his wife, son, and many pets. To find out more about Hatem Aly visit his website.

Diana Barboza, University of Texas-Arlington

© 2021 by Diana Barboza

WOW Review, Volume XIV, Issue 1 by Worlds of Words is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on work by Diana Barboza at https://wowlit.org/on-line-publications/review/xiv-1/13/