1.I would recommend this book to middle to higher elementary school students.
2.This book goes through the story of a girl named Amira and her struggle to want to take a class photo during Eid (which is a holiday celebrated by Muslims). The only issue is that she has to skip school on picture day because of Eid. Which upsets her a lot. IN the end she ends up handing out goody bags to her class and wearing her dress for Eid to school pictures.
3.I would definitely recommend this book in a classroom that is learning about other peoples cultures. ( )

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss. ( )

Amira and her brother scan the sky, looking for the sliver-thin crescent moon that will tell them that Eid is the next day.

With her hands decorated, goody bags ready for kids at the masjid (Faruqi uses the Arabic term for mosque throughout), new Eid clothes, and the knowledge that she will be missing school to celebrate Eid, Amira is excited! But then she notices the flyer on the fridge and remembers tomorrow is Picture Day. She doesn’t want to miss her class picture! But the next day, “seeing the masjid, Amira’s sadness floated away. Her mouth popped open. She could hardly recognize it.” She’s happy during Eid prayers and when greeting friends and family—until she remembers Picture Day. But maybe there’s a way she can do both? Faruqi effectively builds up the excitement to celebrate Eid and balances it with Amira’s distress at missing Picture Day—readers will see that both are important. The characters and interactions at the masjid are real, reinforcing a community celebrating Eid, and so are Amira’s interactions with her classmates. Azim’s illustrations pair well with Faruqi’s words, focusing on facial expression as well as body language to highlight the mixed emotions: excitement, sadness, surprise. There is much diversity among the people at the masjid, including hijab styles, other attire, and racial presentation. Amira’s blue, mirror-bedecked shalwar kameez stands out. Her family is of South Asian heritage.

Sweet and sympathetic. (author's note, more about Eid, glossary) (Picture book. 4-8)

-Kirkus Review

When Amira discovers that Eid has fallen on her class's Picture Day at school, the young Muslim-American girl is crestfallen. She had been looking forward to both! Now, attending the special service at her masjid (mosque), she can't help but feel that she is missing out on an important part of her school life. Fortunately, as she and her family are heading home, inspiration strikes, and she has an idea about what they can do with the leftover goody bags, from the Eid celebration...

Arab-American children's author Reem Faruqi, who previously explored the subject of Ramadan in her Lailah's Lunchbox: A Ramadan Story, returns in Amira's Picture Day to the theme of young people and their involvement in Muslim traditions and holidays. Having enjoyed that earlier book, I was glad to discover this more recent one, and ended up finding it quite engaging. The story offers a gentle, sympathetic portrait of a young girl struggling to reconcile her familial and religious life with her school one, while the colorful digital artwork from Fahmida Azim, ably captures the emotional ups and downs of that story. There were times that I found the visuals here just a tad too cartoonish for my taste, but then, there were also times I found them quite appealing. All in all, a welcome new addition to the growing body of picture-books about young children during the Muslim holidays. Recommended to anyone seeking such stories in general, or set at Eid (Eid-al-Fitr) specifically. ( )

Amira is excited for Eid at the mosque, but sad to miss Picture Day at school - she's worried that if she's not in the group photo, her classmates won't remember her. Luckily, after a morning at the mosque, she has just enough time to get to school, where she hands out gifts and joins the photo wearing her special Eid outfit.

See also: Binny's Diwali, Laxmi's Mooch, Meet Yasmin ( )