Reviews

Piece by Piece: The Story of Nisrin's Hijab by Priya Huq

book_nut's review against another edition

4.0

I’m really enjoying reading about the different aspects of Islam

ljrinaldi's review against another edition

4.0

Nisrin is attacked for wearing an hijab, while coming home one day from middle school. The thing is, at that point, she was just wearing it to show how it looked. She had not considered wearing it daily at that point.

In the summer she takes to recover, she realizes that she wants to start wearing sit full time, and discovers that her teacher, and her classmates hate her for it, and prejudge her, and treat her poorly, and yet, she persists.

Even her mother and grandparents do not understand why she would want to wear it. But in talking to her cousins, and in reasearching Islam, she realizes that she feels closer to god, and so continues, no matter how much hate she gets.

This is a heart breaking story, not the author’s story, but she says she relates to a lot of it.

Good book to show the other side, from the standard white male point of view.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

smortimer's review against another edition

4.0

All the feels for this character who was traumatized for being different. She progresses through her healing journey with religion, identity, and her family’s history. Really grateful for the points of view offered.

iris_garden's review against another edition

hopeful informative sad fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Islamophobia and Hate crime

whitecat5000's review against another edition

emotional fast-paced

4.0

I really liked the mini history lesson at the end.  I also liked that the family all had different ideas and were not a monolith.

michellest's review against another edition

4.0

I really liked the coloring in this book. I keep reading graphic novels that are so plain, but this one had fantastic use of color to convey emotion.

abc27's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Nisrin while walking home from school gets attacked for wearing a headscarf. This story is about the aftermath. How do you cope with something like that? The story itself was moving, but equally as moving were the illustrations, using color to speak for level of emotions soaring through the pages. There was so much rage swarming through me while I read this graphic novel. This is an immigrants worst nightmare. It's heartbreaking, but it's an important read and something we shy around in conversation. This graphic novel is for the immigrants who are too scared to show their culture, because of prejudice. 

krys_kilz's review against another edition

emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I really loved this graphic novel! It dealt with some very heavy subjects in a sensitive and thoughtful way. The art was breathtaking! I also really appreciated the book report style appendix at the end with more information about Bangladesh. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Islamophobia, Racism, and Hate crime

Moderate: Bullying and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Genocide, Rape, War, and Death

livinthelibrarianlife's review against another edition

3.0

I had hoped for more from this, while it was a good graphic novel I felt like it was very rushed and didn’t give as much description and left a lot of blank pages & boxes for students to need to interpret on their own. If they don’t have the knowledge to do so or are on the lower reading level (which many of my kiddos who go for graphic novels are) they would have a hard time filling in those blanks.

I personally enjoyed it but I think too many kids who it is geared towards just are going to miss out on so much due to lack of understanding which is why I gave my lower rating.

ari767's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75