In Nadia's Hands, Nadia is given the role to be the flower girl at her aunties wedding. She's nervous that she will mess up, her cousins don't help much, but they make her even more nervous about it. On the day of the wedding, she has to get henna, which is a Pakistani tradition for women to get henna for special occasions like weddings. After she gets her henna done Nadia doesn't look at her hands like hers. She doesn't like the henna, and she thinks its ugly, but throughout the book, she realizes how her henna makes her family happy and she loves her family, so if they like her henna then the henna might not be so bad. ( )

This was a beautifully written book! I thought it was really cool that they included some words in Urdu in the book. I thought it was also cool that the author put a page in the book to explain the meaning of the Urdu words. This book also touched on anxiety and talked about a wedding like the book, "Flower Girl Butterflies." This book touched on loving who you are and to embrace your uniqueness. The illustrations were done very well with colored pencils. The use of colors are incredible. Every part of the illustrations were shaded with multiple colors. It is very detailed artwork and took a very long time to do. ( )

There are many reasons a liked this book. First of all this book is educational for anyone reading it. I learned a lot about the Pakistani culture that I did not know about before. Nadia is a Pakistani-American girl who is a flower girl in her Aunts wedding. For the wedding, Nadia's Aunt puts mehndi on her hands which is only put on their hands for important occasions. I enjoyed this book because it pushes readers to think about other cultures besides their own and try to connect their own experiences to another culture or learn more about something they may have never experienced. The book also explains what it's like to be a part of a culture that isn't like your classmates. Nadia was embarrassed to go to school Monday with her hands covered in mehndi but after the wedding and seeing how proud her entire family was of her she accepts the fact that she is different, and she is proud of her culture. She even thinks about showing her hands during sharing time. The book has an important message for young readers - to accept who you are and to be proud of it. ( )

Nadia gets chosen as the flower girl for a family member's wedding. As a part of the many Pakistani wedding traditions, Nadia must get her hands painted with a paste made of henna leaves called mehndi. Nadia dreads the thought of having to go to school the following week with her hands painted. It isn't until she realizes how happy her painted hands make her family that she finally learns to appreciate them. She decides she will proudly show them to her class during sharing time at school on Monday. The illustrations in this book are so unique it's hard to describe them. The colors red and purple stuck out to me the most in all of them. Throughout the book, a drawing takes up one page, and the text the other page. One thing that also stuck out to me was Nadia's facial expressions as the story goes on. You can clearly see her expressions matching how the text says she is feeling. ( )

This book was enjoyable to read because I was able to learn about the Pakistani culture. I could relate to this book because I too was in a wedding when I was a little girl. The pictures also made the book enticing because they show the Pakistani culture and how they dress, which is different from what I have seen.
I like how the authored created an underlying issue that the character was facing and turned it into a good ending. The little girl Nadia was afraid of what her friends might think about her painted hands at school on Monday morning. However, add the end of the book she realizes that the paint on her hands is a way for her to teach everyone at school about her culture. I believe that this is a message all children should learn. The pictures are beautiful, unique and shows the styles of the people of their culture. Jonathan Weiner uses warm colors and adds the swirls that Nadia’s hands are marked with on each page as a design. Another reason I thought this book was great was because in the beginning of the book, she gives the readers a note. The note defines 5 different words in Urdu. I like that she defined these words in the beginning of the book, rather than the end, because the readers get a better understanding. It gives the readers a task to look out for those words while reading. I believe this story also pushes readers to use their imagination and how they would feel if they were Nadia. Readers might be able to relate to her situation because some children might’ve been forced to do something that they didn’t want to do based on their traditions.
I think the overall message of the book is to be proud of your heritage and culture. Additionally, don’t be afraid to be different. ( )