Does My Head Look Big in This? - Randa Abdel-Fattah

Does My Head Look Big in This?
Randa Abdel-Fattah
Publisher: Marion Lloyd
£5.99

Her novel, Does My Head Look Big In This? (Marion Lloyd £5.99), is sure to ring bells of all kinds in the heads of non-Muslim readers. There will be those who sigh in despair: how subjugated Muslim women are! There will be those who stare in fascination: how strange these Muslim women seem! And there will be those - the majority, if they read the book with unblinkered eyes - who come away with new understanding and respect for her decision and that of many thousands like her.
And, of course, there will also be many young Muslim women who read the book, aimed chiefly at teenagers, with recognition and enjoyment. At last, a novel which shows the real everyday dilemmas, relationships, joys and fears of someone like them, someone from a traditional background (Abdel-Fattah's parents are from Palestine and Egypt) growing up in a modern society (she was born and educated in Australia) who wants to find her own path between competing sets of values.
The Times Educational Supplement

A sassy, streetwise fashion-conscious teenager has a sardonic take on her life as a devout Muslim girl in urban Australia.
The Guardian

Written in the lippy, wise cracking style of young people everywhere these days, it applies the author's irreverent humour to everything from parents, to friends, to teachers, school, getting up to pray in the morning and other religious practices, as well as, of course, enemies and racists. Not foretting those important creatures called boys. All of which feature in the lives of modern young Muslim women - and many of which feature in the lives of young women everywhere... it's funny, it's foolish, it's serious, it takes up real issues, it tells a story and it strikes a chord. What more can you want of any book.
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