Bismillah,
Author : Ahmad Philips is an author, illustrator, and animator. Raised in Michigan, he graduated in animation and worked as a video editor, illustrator, animator, and game designer. He’s traveled to different countries such as Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Malaysia, before coming back to his home town East Lansing, Michigan, where he currently lives with his wife and two kids. Outside of writing and drawing, Ahmad enjoys playing basketball, and spending time with his family.
Summary: Hani Muslim, a 7 year old Muslim boy, fails a quiz that he forgot to study for. His sister Huda, and his father give him words of advice. Hani realizes he should try his best in everything he does, in order to please his Lord (Allah). If he does this, then he can never fail, because deeds are based on intentions and correct actions. Now Hani is determined to do well on the next test, but things don’t go according to plan!
If you’re looking for a children’s Islamic book to add to your bookshelf, then look no further! The Test is sure to give a dramatic story while also promoting good Islamic morals and good Islamic conduct.
Review: In this series, Hani is back again with a new fun adventure. He knows his weakness; being an absent-minded person. Therefore, he works his life around that weakness to come up on top. We should all know all weaknesses in order to challenge them and succeed in anything we plan on doing.
The illustrations were also way better than the first graphic novel that the author drew that I also had the chance to review. Bravo to the author on improving his craft.
Overall, this a good YA book with a timeless lesson.
Rating: 5/5
Info to connect with the author:
Website : https://themuslimscomic.com/
Instagram : @philz.draws
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/TheMuslimsSeries
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AUG 13, 2017
Bismillah,
The Muslims is a new Muslim graphic novel aimed at young Muslim children.
Author : Ahmad Philips is an author, illustrator, and animator. Raised in Michigan, he graduated in animation and worked as a video editor, illustrator, animator, and game designer. He’s traveled to different countries such as Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Malaysia, before coming back to his home town East Lansing, Michigan, where he currently lives with his wife and two kids. Outside of writing and drawing, Ahmad enjoys playing basketball, and spending time with his family.
Summary: The Muslims is about 2 kids, Hani and Huda, and the lessons they learn through everyday life. Each chapter tackles different moral issues such as stealing, sharing, being grateful and much more. Join Hani and Huda as they learn different aspects of Islam through their own life experiences.
Thoughts: For someone who grew up reading Manga graphic novels like Naruto, I appreciated this effort by Author Ahmad Phillips to cater to a young Muslim audience.
The book has 5 illustrated chapters which deal with different situations.
Chapter 1 is titled ‘Life is a Test’. Chapter 2 is ‘Rainy Day’. Chapter 3 is named ‘Being Truthful’. Chapter 4 ‘Having Fun’ and finally Chapter 5 deals with ‘Arrogance’. Chapter 1, 2, and 5 mainly revolve around Hani, the male character. On the other hand, Chapter 3 and 4 are mainly about his sister Huda.
In chapter 2, I wished there was a flashback or an explanation on how the children were taught the duas about rain in the first place.
Chapter 5 ends with a cliffhanger, and I’m curious to see how the ending scene plays out. Also, I don’t know why the teacher had to be so large… That said, it made me giggle a bit.
Having said all these above, the art of the book is a bit simplistic in my opinion but the graphic novel has good maxims we can use to teach Muslim children. In other words, I feel like The Muslims needs more details in the background of certain illustrations or more realistic facial expressions throughout and consistently the comic. Not to be harsh, the illustrations are at a sketch level now and need to be more fleshed out to achieve the level of mainstream comics’ quality insha’Allah. Of course, that also requires capital that self-publishers don’t always have.
Hoping this review is beneficial to the author and wishing him all the best with his art, ameen.
You can get your copy on Amazon here. And watch a video about the characters of the comic here on YouTube.
Jazakh’Allah khair for reading,
Papatya*
P.S. Info to connect with the author
Website : https://themuslimscomic.com/
Instagram : @philz.draws
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/TheMuslimsSeries
A Ducktrinor Mom 