Description
This is the true story of the journey of the Midnight Sun Mosque.
In 2010 a Winnipeg-based charity raised funds to build and ship a mosque to Inuvik, one of the most northern towns in Canada’s Arctic. A small but growing Muslim community there had been using a cramped trailer for their services, but there just wasn't enough space. The mosque travelled over 4,000 kilometers on a journey fraught with poor weather, incomplete bridges, narrow roads, low traffic wires and a deadline to get on the last barge heading up the Mackenzie River before the first winter freeze. But it made it just in time and is now one of the most northern mosques in the world.
This beautiful picture book reminds us that the collective dream of fostering a multicultural and tolerant Canada exists and that people of all backgrounds will come together to build bridges and overcome obstacles for the greater good of their neighbors.
Author Bio
SHAZIA AFZAL has been teaching children for more than 20 years. She worked as an elementary school teacher, then as a Montessori teacher and now runs her own Montessori school. Her favourite thing to do is read storybooks to children. She is a storyteller at heart and has published five children's books. She fasts in Ramadan, celebrates Eid Ul Fitr and has experienced it in four different countries including Canada. She loves walking and hiking in nature and lives with her family in Mississauga, Ontario.
Prizes
- CCBC Best Books for Kids & TeensCommended 2022
- Junior Library Guild (JLG) Gold Standard SelectionCommended 2022
- Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) ChoicesCommended 2023
- Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards - Children’s Picture BookNominated 2023
- Ontario Library Association (OLA) Best BetsCommended 2022
- FOLD Kids Summer Reading ListCommended 2022
- MuslimMatters Muslim Bookstagram Awards - Best Muslim Non-Fiction BookWinner 2022
- BC Books for SchoolsCommended 2022
- Top Grade: CanLit for the ClassroomCommended 2022
Review Quotes
“Reading and learning about the great lengths that one community went to in order to support another demonstrates how stories connect us to ourselves, our families, and our communities and how we share our world in the context of English Language Arts for kindergarten to grade two.”
— BC Books for Schools