Fatima’s Great Outdoors

K-Gr 4–After a trying week of microaggressions and outright harassment from students at school and a bad grade on a math test, Fatima Khazi can’t wait to get away for her family’s first camping trip. On the drive to the state park, Fatima is comforted by samosas and Bollywood music, even as her older sister’s achievements at school make her feel small. Tariq deftly weaves together the Khazi family’s life experiences in India with the trip, by juxtaposing the parents’ upbringings, and showing Fatima build confidence through camping. A four-paneled spread, in vivid cartoon style, is used at the beginning and end of the book. It reflects Fatima’s feelings of distress at school and the freedom, happiness, and belonging that she finds in nature. Though the text does not explicitly name the family as Muslim, naming conventions and the family cooking halal beef bacon, provide clues to their background. The family is mentioned as Urdu-speaking; terms are not defined in the text or glossary, centering the characters of the narrative. Though the story can be read as present day, there are nods to the recent past. The last spread illustrates a group of campers with a sign “Brown People Camping” in reference to Tariq’s social media initiative.