Muslim Kids Book Nook

📚 The Cat I Never Named 📚
Author: Amra Sabic-el-Reyess with Laura L.Sullivan
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Age: 16+

Islamic Content: Muslim identity, a true story of love, war and survival
Concerns: war, harassment, injury, survival, love interest, kissing

Summary:
Amra is just a teen at the start of war in Bosnia. Amra’s life and her world was quickly changing as the war had caused a massive divide among the people of Bihac, including among the so-called friends. Amra finds herself attached to a stray cat that followed her home, so even in the toughest times, she found comfort in the cat’s presence.

Review:
I usually tend to stay away from reviewing YA novels due to heavier content. However, I think I want to highlight this book to those to inspire at least one person to pick it up and learn a little more about the experience of a Bosnian War survivor. The Cat I Never Named is based on the true story of a teenage girl navigating life, safety and love in a time of war and destruction. I will start off by asking a very obvious question: Why did it take nearly 3 decades to have an OWN voice book to be published about the horrendous war against Muslims in Bosnia?

I got a copy of this book as soon as it came out and tried to read it a couple of times but I found myself unable to finish it. Finally decided to give the audiobook a try and made it to the end, alhamdulilah. Not because it wasn’t a good book, but because the story hit too close to home for me personally.

The book was well written and it had me emotionally invested into the story. As I was listening through it, I found myself consistently making comparisons between Bosnia and Kosovo; the people, culture, Islam, the war and life in general. The effects of years of communism in regard to Islam and the Muslim identity in the Balkan has really watered down the faith to a mere identity for a lot of people, unfortunately. I appreciate that this is made clear throughout the book that most characters in this book identify as Muslim, and although they may not be practicing, they were being prosecuted for it.

If you haven’t had the chance to read it, please do. With all the horrific things happening in the world, read this bit of history. It will help you understand that no matter what time in history and no matter where in the world, all occupiers follow the same playbook, they just cloak themselves differently.

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