My Friend Jamal - Softcover

Kindergarten-Grade 3—Joseph describes his friendship with Jamal, a boy whose family immigrated to the United States from Somalia. He discusses their similarities-they both like to play superheroes and basketball and they sometimes get in trouble at school for talking too much—as well as their differences. Jamal's family reads the Koran, while Joseph's has a Bible; Joseph is intrigued when Jamal's mother serves pasta with bananas. The text is written in a breathless style with lots of dashes and exclamation marks to capture the casual speech of a child. Topics mentioned are of interest to young readers, such as food, smells (their mothers use different spices), games, etc. The lively, brightly colored collages consist of original photographs of the main characters and stock photos of food or objects with thickly painted outlines and accents added. Both text and pictures project an energetic, friendly tone, with the exception of one page that shows several men holding guns. Joseph says, "Jamal's mom and dad were born in Somalia, in Africa—but a lot of fighting started and people were getting killed. It was very dangerous, so they had to escape. They came here because there's no fighting." A useful title for discussing friendship or the reasons for emigrating.—Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA
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