This week is National Storytelling Week which is an annual event that encourages individuals and communities to embrace the tradition of storytelling. It’s a time to celebrate the diverse ways in which stories are told, whether through spoken word, written narratives, theatre, film, or other creative mediums. This week provides a platform for storytellers, both amateur and professional, to showcase their talents and engage audiences with captivating tales. Scroll down below to see fictional books, non-fiction accounts and graphic novels that IHRC Bookshop have available.
THROWBACK: Author evening with Kosser Abdul Aziz: Tales of Mini Maryam
Last January, IHRC hosted an author evening event with Kosser Abdul Aziz, who discussed her children’s book, Tales of Mini Maryam. To watch the event, click on the video below.
To purchase the book, click here.
Kosser Abdul Aziz is a motivational public speaking coach for women and children, as well as a TV presenter, compère, published author and CEO of a social enterprise, Alburouge CIC, providing subsidised educational and recreational activities for Muslim children and women living in the London Boroughs of Brent and Ealing.
Support the Oppressed People of Yemen
Yemen is witnessing the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. IHRC Trust is seeking your donations to assist some of the most oppressed people on earth. To donate, click on the link below.
Below are some books available at IHRC Bookshop. For more books, click here.
River Spirit – Leila Aboulela1890s Sudan. When Akuany and her brother are orphaned in a village raid, they are taken in by a young merchant, Yaseen, who promises to care for them – a vow that tethers him to Akuany throughout their adulthood.
As revolution begins to brew, led by the self-proclaimed Mahdi, Sudan begins to prise itself from Ottoman rule, and everyone must choose a side.
Yaseen feels beholden to stand against this false Mahdi, a decision that threatens to splinter his family.
Meanwhile, Akuany is moved across the country alone, sold and traded from house to house, with only Yaseen as her intermittent lifeline. Their struggle mirrors the increasingly bloody struggle for Sudan itself: for freedom, safety and the possibility of love.
River Spirit is the unforgettable story of a people who, against the odds and for a brief time, gained independence from foreign rule through their willpower, subterfuge and sacrifice.
Until We Meet Again in Jannah – Laki Isra
No matter how hard Saira tries, the memories do not abate. She thought, after fleeing from her abusive husband Hamid and returning to her village, that life would go back to normal—but the villagers, men and women she’s known her entire life, shun her. When even her closest relationships crumble, Saira realizes sadly that her mother is the only friend she has left. Leaving her old life behind, Saira meets Omar, a wealthy businessman betrothed to another.
He is everything she has never imagined—kind, handsome, compassionate—and she soon finds herself desperately in love. But great change and tragedy loom, and Saira will find herself plunged into a life she barely recognizes. Though she will eventually move to London, England, Bangladesh refuses to relinquish Saira’s heart—on even the darkest English days, she’ll think of Omar, of how at night’s end, dawn blossoms… Until We Meet Again… In Jannah is the moving and utterly human story of one woman’s defiance in the face of tradition. Saira’s journey of self-discovery is a testament to the binding powers of love and memory, and her tale is a must for lovers of contemporary and international fiction alike.
The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History – David F. Walker, Marcus Kwame Anderson
A bold and fascinating graphic novel history of the revolutionary Black Panther Party.
Founded in Oakland, California, in 1966, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was a radical political organization that stood in defiant contrast to the mainstream civil rights movement.
This gripping illustrated history explores the impact and significance of the Panthers, from their social, educational, and healthcare programs that were designed to uplift the Black community to their battle against police brutality through citizen patrols and frequent clashes with the FBI, which targeted the Party from its outset.
Using dramatic comic book-style retellings and illustrated profiles of key figures, The Black Panther Party captures the major events, people, and actions of the party, as well as their cultural and political influence and enduring legacy.
Che: A Graphic BiographyA graphic biography of the most iconic revolutionary figure of the twentieth century. Since his death in 1967, Ernesto Che Guevara has become a universally known revolutionary icon and political figure whose image is among the most recognizable in the world. This dramatic and extensively researched book breathes new life into his story, portarying his struggle through the medium of the underground political comic – one of the most prominent countercultural art forms since the 1960s.
Spain Rodriguez’s powerful artwork illuminates Che’s life and the experiences that shaped him, from his motorcycle journey through Latin America, his rise to prominence as a leader in Fidel Castro’s revolutionary movement, his travels in Africa, his involvement in the insurgency that led to his death in Bolivia, and his extraordinary legacy.
Accounts of China and India – Abu Zayd al-Sirafi
An exceptional exemplar of Arabic travel writing, Accounts of China and India is a compilation of reports and anecdotes about the lands and peoples of this diverse territory, from the Somali headlands of Africa to the far eastern shores of China and Korea. Traveling eastward, we discover a vivid human landscape―from Chinese society to Hindu religious practices―as well as a colorful range of natural wilderness―from flying fish to Tibetan musk-deer and Sri Lankan gems.
The juxtaposed accounts create a kaleidoscope of a world not unlike our own, a world on the road to globalization. In its ports, we find a priceless cargo of information. Here are the first foreign descriptions of tea and porcelain, a panorama of unusual social practices, cannibal islands, and Indian holy men―a marvelous, mundane world, contained in the compass of a novella.
Spell it Like Samar – Shifa Safadi
An empowering story of persistence and believing in yourself! Samar has recently moved to America from Syria, and everything is new. Even the jump rope games at recess are unfamiliar. It doesn’t help that Jenna, the class bully, keeps making fun of Samar’s accent. Samar decides to enter the school spelling bee to prove once and for all that she’s smarter than everyone thinks! But learning the words turns out harder than she thought. Can Samar be persistent and compete in the school spelling bee?
Not Too Little To Make a Difference – Lela Usama Goldsmith
Sofia is eager to start the new school year because she will finally be able to enter the Junior Journalist competition. Just as she finishes writing her story entry, Sofia’s mother breaks the news that without school tuition, she cannot go back to school yet. Will Sofia ever be able to enter the competition and realise her dreams of becoming a journalist? A story of perseverance, heart and believing that god will never allow good work to go to waste.
Refugee Boy – Benjamin Zephaniah
Alem is on holiday with his father for a few days in London. He has never been out of Ethiopia before and is very excited. They have a great few days together until one morning when Alem wakes up to find that his father has left him. Alem is left a letter in which his father admits that political problems in Ethiopia mean they have decided he will be safer in London. Alem is now on his own, in the hands of the social services and the Refugee Council. This story charts Alem’s fate as he is moved from children’s home to foster family, and in and out of court hearings.
The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas
Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl’s struggle for justice.
