An Andalus Adventure

Product Information

Leaving his sleepy village of Tlemcen, a young Berber, Qasim, joins Tariq's men, and is swept away on an amazing quest.

The summary might make the book seem fast paced, and while it does constantly move forward to a clear destination, it isn’t a “buckle your seatbelt and hang on” type of story.

The book opens with two young siblings Ben and Bella, overlooking the coast, dreading their lives under Visigoth oppression, and hiding their Jewish culture and faith. All that aside, I think the book has value, it is just really dry in spots, a lot of spots, and given the vocabulary, the changing narrators, the choppiness between chapters, and the history, it is hard to keep reading or be anxious to pick up once you have put it down.

The book would naturally lend itself to the students keeping character journals, the supplements and backmatter would allow for references and insight in to real history, and I think the book would do really well in this set up to connect with the audience. N. Jalali is an author of works of fiction for older children and YA, from boarding school adventures to her newest adventure packed novel; a historical fiction for Young Adults inspired by real-life historical events of the birth of Muslim Spain.

Filed under 5th grade and up, Historical Fiction, islamic fiction, middle grades, Middle School, Muslim Author, Muslim Character, OWN Voice, ramadan, Uncategorized and tagged 2022, adventure, An Andalus Adventure, Andalus, battle, berbers, boats, clean, Eid, friendship, Historical Fiction, horses, Iberia, Islam, islamic fiction, islamic historical fiction, jews, liberation, Middle School, northern Africa, Oppression, ramadan, S. It is extremely well written and I loved the way the author integrates perspectives from three different viewpoints, following their adventures with different timelines that come together in an incredible finale. Similarly, I love that it mentioned Abbas Ibn Firnas, but I don’t know that most kids know enough about him to know what is being hinted at and what the outcome was of his flight at the end. Leaving his sleepy village of Tlemcen, a young Berber, Qasim joins Tariq's men and is swept away on an amazing quest.

I don’t know that I could get middle school students to read the book for a book club, it would have to be motivated by a grade to get through it in a classroom setting I’m afraid. Leaving his sleepy village of Tlemcen, a young Berber Qasim, joins Tariq’s men, and is swept away on an amazing quest.

Siblings Ben and Bella live under constant Visigoth scrutiny, forced to lead a double life of secrets and deception.

Jalali’s books explore the Islamic faith through the tradition of storytelling – entertaining with adventurous, humorous and memorable characters to fuel the imagination. In a middle school, or upper elementary the book would be a great crossover between History, English, and Islam classes. It then jumps to the Governor of Ceuta, Count Julian (Ilyan), awaiting to meet with Umayyad leader Tariq ibn-Ziyad. Her childhood was spent in Wales, and after graduating, having travelled widely in the Muslim world, she lives in London with her husband and three children.I love historical fiction, visiting Spain is on my bucket list, this book has a map, details about what is historical what is fiction, has Islam woven in to the heart and soul of the story and characters, and yet it was a hard read.