Yaffa and Fatima, Shalom, Salaam

I was looking for a children's book that would promote understanding between Jewish and Muslim people. It has the message I wanted to find and is beautifully illustrated.

A beautiful story of how we are all connected because of our religion. It holds up both Jewish and Muslim people as friends who have more in common than they realize; what a wonderful read aloud to celebrate religious diversity as a strength.

This delightful book caught my eye with the title and I had to buy it. My Egyptian-American Muslim friend, Fatma, and I ( Jewish-American), sign off in our emails to each other with Shalom, Salaam. I read this book to my grandsons and told them that this story is just like the way my friend and I talk to each other. What a great way to help break down bias and to build positive ideas about friendships between people who may seem different from us but who are much more alike than we may be taught.