Growing up in a village where few families believed in educating their daughters, Umm Kulthum (1898-1975), who was named after a daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, defied expectations early by memorizing the Qur\u2019an. Described as \u201cno ordinary girl,\u201d she became known across the countryside for her resonant voice. She appears here with a large head that\u2019s disproportionate to her body and a face that betrays every emotion. In full-bleed, double-page illustrated spreads, bright lights and dark shadows present realistic scenes with abstract whimsy, an approach that\u2019s by turns affecting and off-putting. The cartoony facial expressions are an odd complement to the text\u2019s length and seriousness. Still, the fascinating dimensions of Umm Kulthum\u2019s life journey keep the story engaging, while the narrative\u2019s thoughtful context provides down-to-earth perspectives of Arabs\u2019 joys and struggles against colonial rule. Desert tones and Egyptian motifs pay homage to the culture Umm Kulthum so glorified with her classical religious music and \u201ctraditional ways.\u201d A primer on Arabic instruments, a note about the author\u2019s own connection to the singer, and a bibliography offer excellent jumping-off points for interested readers. They\u2019ll also want to search for a recipe of Umm Kulthum\u2019s favorite dessert, \u201ca milky, creamy, heavenly pudding called muhalabiyah.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Growing up in a village where few families believed in educating their daughters, Umm Kulthum (1898-1975), who was named after a daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, defied expectations early by memorizing the Qur\u2019an. Described as \u201cno ordinary girl,\u201d she became known across the countryside for her resonant voice. She appears here with a large head […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}