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This story features the Pakistani tradition of decorating hands with mehndi, or henna, for festive occasions. The little girl in the story is chosen to be a flower girl in a family wedding, and is experiencing mehndi for the first time. With this first experience comes a variety of emotions: excitement for the wedding, anxiety over the walk down the aisle, embarrassment as her cousins laugh at her on the big day; fear of what her friends at school will think of her hands on Monday; and finally a...
12/27/2017 ~~ Nadia's family wants her to have her hands painted with henna for her aunt's traditional Pakistani wedding. What will her friends at school think? Nadia must reconcile her family's traditions with the task of fitting in at school. Consider pairing this book with chapter book: Amina's Voice by Hena Kahn.
Nadia's Hands By Karen EnglishAge group 7-10This story of the little girl from Pakistan was very enjoyable. This story was very interesting. The little girl has to be a flower girl in her aunts wedding and she gets nervous about throwing the flowers in the right spot, walking down and not falling, and the mehndi (paste made from henna tree and applied on women's hands). She was afraid that children in school would talk about her hands. She was ultimately embarrassed of her culture. She realized
This is a great read aloud for elementary and middle school students. Nadia is a Pakistani-American girl who is asked to be a flower girl in a a family wedding. She joins in the family’s traditions but is reluctant to decorate her hands with mehndi because the kids at school will see it on Monday. She starts out concerned with blending in at school, reluctant to seem different, which sadly means she’s afraid to be herself. Will she come to accept who she is and take pride in being a part of her
In connection to a school-wide (K-12) reading project, my students have been learning about Pakistan and Afghanistan and the lives of contemporary children in Central Asia. The goal of my partner teacher and I has been to share a range of stories and ideas that begin to show the diversity of Central Asian peoples and cultures. And while the books we've read have often featured people living on the other side of the world, many of the characters’ challenges connect directly to our challenges in t...
DiverseThis is a picture book with beautiful illustrations that depicts Pakistani culture. The main character is a young girl named Nadia who gets henna paintings on her hands as part of her role as the flower girl for her aunt’s wedding. Nadia’s fears about judgement from classmates at school is addressed and in the end Nadia accepts and is proud of the differences of her culture. This is an incredible book that discusses hard topics such as differences, bullying, and culture. It also provides
This book nicely explains to be your own person no matter what your past is, how you look, or even what your siblings have done said. I like this story very much, and I can wait to incorporate it into my forensics theme!
That was a good book, I enjoyed it. I just randomly listened to it, so good book! 5 stars.
Nadia, a Pakistani-American girl, has been chosen to be the flower girl for Auntie Laila’s traditional wedding. Nadia is a very shy girl as she came from strict and traditional community so that she was a little nervous. After her family supported her and told her that she will be very pretty and she is lucky to be chosen. Nadia agreed to be the flower girl and she will wear shalwar with a matching kameez on top. She will have her hair curly, and she will walk down the corridor scattering flower...
Nadia is going to be a flower girl in her aunt's wedding. She's worried though, not only in her duties as a flower girl and getting it right, but also about the henna mendhi (designs) on her hands. Henna doesn't come off for a while, so Nadia wonders what will her classmates think? However, a beautiful wedding sweeps Nadia along for the ride and she can't wait to show off her hands to her classmates and be very proud of her Pakistani heritage. I was thrilled that this book existed and amazingly,...
Embracing your culture can be challenging when you live in another country. Nadia comes to understand one aspect of her heritage in such a nice way.
Simple at first glance but full of meaning.
Nadia’s Hands, by Karen English, is an authentic tale about a young girl that is a flower girl in her relations wedding. For the wedding the girl is told that she will be getting her hands done. Her relative completes her hands with all different markings and drawings on her hands for their faith. The girl did not want her hands done because she didn’t want to go to school with it on her hands because of what students might say or think. But she does get her hands painted and embraces that at th...
I found this to be a nice story about a little girl experiencing something for the first time. She is excited and nervous and not to happy about parts of this new experience. She's also nervous about what other's who are not part of this culture will think. She comes to be more excepting when she sees how happy her family is.
This story tells of young Nadia and her excitement and fear over having her hands painted with mehndi. She is excited to be the important flower girl in her aunt's wedding, yet fearful of what kids at school will say when they see her, "amber hands... that did not look like her hands."I wish that the author had shown Nadia's interaction with her classmates and her overcoming her fear of sharing her painted hands. I was not terribly impressed with the illustrations, and wished that they were more...
I liked this book as it features a Pakistani girl that honors her Pakistani traditions. Her Aunt is getting married and she has been chosen to be the flower girl. Her traditions call for her hands being decorated in henna. She is had mixed emotions about the henna being on her hands. She is excited to honor her tradition, and at the same time worried about what her friends at school will say. This book is a wonderful lesson for the entire class to be tolerant of other students’ customs. This boo...
Nadia’s Hands is a fiction story of a Pakistani-American girl, Nadia, who struggle with her mixed feelings over the mehndi (temporary designs drawn onto women’s hands with henna) on her hands (ex. “she didn’t want these hands that didn’t look like her hands”. This text is great to use to teach the class not only about being open-minded of other students’ customs, but also to honor different cultural diversity (ex “Maybe she could show her hands during sharing time. Linda Murakami came with her g...
Although I thought the illustrations were subpar, the text of this book was excellent. I think this story could be read to teach younger students the concepts of patience and tolerance. A Pakistani-American girl worries about what her classmates will think of her hands that have been decorated with henna for a wedding where she is the flower girl. Coming to terms that the henna represents part of her heritage, she accepts the decorations as becoming. (During the process, she must have patience b...
This talks about a young Pakistan- American girl who gets mehndi, a traditional art on woman's hands for occasions, such as being a flower in her aunts wedding. All she can think about at first is what everyone at school will think about it, until she realizes it's important and it's a part of her culture that she doesn't need to be ashamed of. She decides she'd like to share it with everyone in class.
I think Nadia's Hands is an interesting story about one young Pakistani girl's struggle to balance her cultural traditions and school life. I wanted to like this story but I felt that it did not do the Pakistani American family justice. The emphasis was too much on how afraid Nadia was to show her culture in school. Although this is a reality for many young immigrants I felt that it could have been done better. The story also seemed to occasionally slip and show a negative stereotype (the mean/j...