Book review by Nur Atiqah Nadirah Binti Ahmad Kushari ( mc110 )

Title : Does my head look big in this ?

Author : Randa Abdel-Fattah

Language : English

Media type Print : Paperback

Synopsys :

Amal Mohamed Abdel-Hakim is a sixteen year-old Australian-Palestinian-Muslim girl living in

Melbourne with her mom and dad. She has green eyes and brown hair. Her father Mohamed drives
a metallic-red convertible because he's convinced that he's still young and cool, he fails to remember
that he has a receding hairline, and he blasts Italian opera or 'Palestinian Folk' songs from his car
stereo system. Her mom's name is Jamila, which means beautiful in Arabic. She’s loud, fun and
energetic, loves to laugh, and is neurotically clean.

Amal likes her friends (Simone, Eileen, Leila and Yasmeen) and values their friendship. Her religion is
Islam; she has a lot of respect for her religion and thinks highly of it. At the start of the novel, Amal
makes a choice which involves wearing the hijab (the head scarf) 'full' time. After four days of
thinking about this decision, she decides to go ahead with it and wear the hijab.

Her friends have a lot of issues too; Simone has serious body image problems and is constantly going
on ridiculous diets and such. Eileen puts up with racism due to her Japanese heritage. Leila's parents
dismiss her amazing school marks and are always trying to find her a suitor to marry, and Yasmeen is
a slight shop-o-holic.

Near the beginning of the text, Amal talks about Adam as her friend. Towards the end of the text she
finds out that Adam likes her and he tries to kiss her at his birthday party, but instead of following
her heart she follows her head and her religion. Amal is a good friend to most people in the text
except for three stuck-up girls. At a vulnerable moment in the toilets, Amal runs into Tia, Claire and
Rita, after a little 'bad' talk about everything wrong with Amal. The relationship between these three
girls and Amal is anything but friendly. It is a story about a young girl's hardships as she must learn to
figure out her relationship with Adam, and to learn about herself.

Also during this story, Amal has to deal with a lot of pressure and the importance of understanding
other people's views, such as when her friend Leila gets fed up with her mother's marriage set-ups
and runs away. Amal has to deal with Leila's frustration over the fact that her mother is not
practising her religion correctly and Leila's mother's beliefs. Amal also has an aunt and uncle that are
totally "Aussie" and do not follow Amal's religion at all, and question why she follows it. Amal must
also deal with a cranky Greek neighbor who has stopped talking to her only son because he
converted. Amal becomes good friends with her and tries to coax her to talk to her son after many
years of silence.

In the end of the story, Amal realizes it is the different and imperfect immigrants who are her friends
and family and who have shaped who she is and who she will become in the future.