Book review: Many Windows: Six kids, five faiths, one community
Author: Rukhsana Khan with Elisa Corbone and Uma krishnaswami
Date: 2008 Napoleon Publishing
Many windows is a short novel about students whose lives connect in a single classroom in a public school. Each chapter focuses on an individual child and their family, often but not always as they celebrate a particular holiday. The holiday serves as a backdrop for the writing, religion is never at the forefront of the writing. I think that’s often how life is: although what we believe is central to who we are, it’s not always obvious in our daily interactions. The chapters could be read independently to stress a particular theme or religion. An important message I found in the book is the role that teachers and other adults have in maintaining peace. The books ends with short essays describing Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Ramadam and Eid ul Fitr. (Middle Grades)
This books was purchased from Amazon.ca
Edi Cotton Quilts 
That sounds to be an interesting read. You bring up a good point of how we as adults must interact with the different faiths of children.
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Edi – was the story good or did it read like too much of a lesson? The first book that came to mind after reading this reveiw was Fleischman’s Seedfolks.
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[…] reviewed Many Windows: Six kids, five faiths, one community by Rukhsana Khan with Elisa Corbone and Uma […]
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Interesting. Our children do encounter children of different faiths. Yes, teachers and other adults do play a significant role in maintaining peace. Really, they are the role models for tolerance of others faiths. Still…tolerance is a tricky word in practice.
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Tolerance. Yes. Should we only *tolerate* one another?
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Dear Edi,
Thank you for the nice words about my book.
It was truly a labour of love. Uma, Elisa and myself wanted to show how kids could get along despite their different religious backgrounds, just like we do.
All the best,
Rukhsana Khan
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