Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. These opinions are completely my own

Muhammad's Recipe for Remembering is a book that should be in every classroom. These brave men played a role in our freedom, yet I don't recall ever acknowledging them in my years of school.

Also this is my second book with Roti in it that I have reviewed today, which means I'll be attempting to make some this weekend.

This picture book introduces a valuable topic by highlighting Muslim and Indian involvement in the World Wars, which is often overlooked. At times, its execution falls short, with missed opportunities to provide meaningful context for young readers, but Muhammad's Recipe for Remembering is still worth adding to school libraries.

This story follows a little boy named Muhammad as he seeks to learn more about his family's history by interviewing community members. He realizes that there are many voices missing from the narrative of WWI and resolves to change this. The book highlights the importance of representation and seeks to address this historical narrative gap. I love that the main character is both Asian and Muslim because I know how much it means to my tinies when they have books with characters that look like them. I also appreciate the recipe at the back of the book. I will have to give it a try! 3.5 rounded to 4 stars

I gave it a slightly lower score because the flow of the story was a bit choppy to me and style of the illustrations wasn't my favorite.

I see this narrative as a child's attempt at social bonding with an unfriendly, self-absorbed crowd. Loss, not gain in terms of medals, honours, etc., is the true legacy of industrial war. It does not build nations. It destroys them. I wish the story had done more to move away from the world war propaganda industry that perpetuates industrial warfare around the globe, robbing more and more people of their rights, freedoms, and sense of belonging to planet earth and the life-sustaining resources it provides us. Farmers are better nation builders than soldiers. Muhammad's ancestors were farmers before they were forced to become foot soldiers for colonial powers. The roti recipe, though unconventional, is a nice symbol of persistence and survival. Food traditions last centuries whereas war traditions and ornaments have a limited lifespan. It's not desirable to pass a love of war to one's children, and militaristic societies breed corruption and destruction, not freedom. One of the immediate realizations of WWI soldiers was that industrial battles defile and impoverish humanity and dishonour the bravery of soldiers by treating them as cannon fodder, not men. In WWII, the arena of industrial warfare expanded to include civilians as fodder. Now, with WWIII seemingly underway, children in their beds are the food of the war machine. What have we learned in all these years of remembering? Absolutely nothing.

This book tells the story of a little boy who feels left out when his classmates tell stories about their grandfathers fighting in the World Wars. His classmates discriminate against him and tell him that he can’t be a soldier because he doesn’t look like one, and that he needs to cook food, but only foods like biscuits because those were what they thought soldiers ate. When he goes home and talks to his father and grandfather, he learns that his family and the village they came from actually did fight in the war and also ate things like roti, a food his family loves. He goes on to present at the class assembly and shows his peers that his family and culture are important to remember as well.The book ends with a recipe for Roti. I could definitely see myself reading this book to my class during Remembrance day lessons because it is important that they learn that in World Wars many countries and diverse groups of people were involved in one way or another. I think this would be a fabulous addition to my classroom library especially because I do not have any books like this one that tell a variation on the traditional veterans/remembrance day stories. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review this beautiful book.

Muhammad’s Recipe for Remembering is the story of a boy who wants to learn about how his family was involved in the World Wars.

This is such a man interesting book because it made me realize that even as an adult I had never heard anything about Muslim, Hindu, or Sikh soldiers. This sent me off into a rabbit hole of research, which I feel like is the sign of a great historical-themed book!

I also really love how Muhammad’s roti recipe was included!

This is an amazing book that I should be included in every school and featured in Remembrance Day celebrations,

I feel like the idea and heart of this 40 page picture book is decent, but the story, presentation and takeaway are just really poorly executed. The pitch is a Muslim Desi kid feeling left out when all his friends are rehearsing for the upcoming veterans assembly because he doesn’t have anything to share. He then starts asking his family, and the Muslims and non Muslims hanging out at the mosque to find out about Muslim and Indian involvement in the World Wars. A rarely explored topic, considering in the West WWI and WWII are taught from a Western centric perspective, no doubt. Unfortunately, most early elementary readers, the book’s target audience is 4-7, have limited knowledge of the World Wars, let alone about the subcontinents own politics and that they were occupied themselves under colonial rule at the time, and this book does nothing to explain any of it. The inconsistencies, plot holes, vocabulary and ultimate lack of sharing a single story from a descendant of someone who fought, make the book rather pointless and forgettable. Truly the take away is that there were Muslims among the Indian army, they made roti and prayed. No real idea what they experienced, saw, endured, or gained in return for being forced to fight for Britain on the global stage.

The book starts with Muhammad listening in to his classmates talk about their family members that are veterans and him feeling left out. At recess they don’t let him battle in the reenactments and instead make him be the cook. When he gets home his dad is making rotis and Muhammad asks his dad if they have veterans in their family, they then go ask his grandfather if his great great grandfather fought in either World Wars. Dada jaan recalls that “they sent my grandfather to France in World War One.” But he never spoke about it except to mention that they shared rotis. He suggests they go to the mosque the next night as that is where, “a kaleidoscope of people gather.” He learns from a Sikh uncle in a turban that whole villages went to fight and from Imam Rafiq that the soldiers fasted in Ramadan, prayed, and celebrated Eid. No one has any visible tokens of their family’s service as they were lost over time. Determined not to let the stories be lost, Muhammad shares roti at the assembly.

Ok, buckle up, I have a lot to point out, but first the positive. I like that the dad makes rotis. Mom isn’t in the book, but there are a lot of pictures of a lady hanging on the walls of the house, so possibly she has passed and dad has to cook, no matter, it is nice seeing a Desi dad in the kitchen. I also like that the mosque is central to the story, I wish it was called a masjid, and that it was explained why people that are not Muslim are hanging out there. Brown people are generally lumped together and this seems to reinforce that stereotype, which makes me less than thrilled. It seems like a social environment with ping pong tables and snacks happening, so why not say it is a social hall at the masjid where people of all faiths often gather. A “kaleidoscope of people” does not explain people of different religions at a mosque to most four year olds. The book claims the assembly is honoring veterans, so why is Muhammad only curious about WWI and WWII is never explained. He is teased and forced to be the cook by his friends, with a very negative connotations and depiction in the illustration, but that notion is never pushed back upon, and is actually heightened with rotis being the thread that ties the entire book together. A missed opportunity to be sure.

I really struggle with the reality that the majority of Indians were forced to fight, and the book keeps it vague in the text with lines such as “joined the war effort,” and “they sent..” who is they? It sounds nice that Muhammad doesn’t want the stories, like the artifacts to be lost, but WHAT STORIES? If the book is about remembering, and stories are to be shared at the assembly, I feel short changed that the reader doesn’t get a single story about a Muslim or Indian that fought in one of the World Wars. Isn’t that the point of the book? Yes the book has sources at the end, but it is fictionalized, make up a story, give the reader and Muhammad something to take pride in, to understand through, to imagine, what it was like for his great great grandfather.

I struggled with the illustrations as well, Imam Rafiq looks off in the final image, I don’t get why Dada jaans memories seem to be on the TV either. I also didn’t understand why rotis were the thread, but then it is paratha at breakfast that gives the idea, and who really is constantly spreading ghee on paratha or roti let alone at war, or at recess.

War is not a trivial matter, and I kind of feel like this book reduced it to food, and allowed some racism, classism, and Islamophobia, to go unchecked along the way. I like that the backmatter has a recipe and an author’s note, but colonialism, service, war, are all heavy topics that are hard to bring down to an early elementary level picture book, and sadly this book is unable to connect and inform readers about this time in history.

A touching story about a boy finding his families history and the affects of war. A great book to bring in the discussion of the erasure of some histories due to the emphasis on written and white histories. I would use this with Grade 4 and 5 students in particular.

This is a Veteran’s Day book all classrooms should have. Muhammad wants to share something special on Veteran’s Day, but he hears little about Veterans with his heritage. He is able to make a connection with food by speaking to other people. He’s able to share about Veterans seldom spoken about and their role in the war.

This picture book tells a fictional story about a boy who starts asking questions about the history of India's involvement in the world wars, since he feels left out at school with the current emphasis on war-related family history. Parts of the book feel preachy and too on-the-nose, but the resolution is satisfying, and the author shares more information in the backmatter about Indian soldiers and reasons why the world wars have somewhat passed out of Indian cultural memory. This is an interesting book that fills in a gap in most people's knowledge.

Muhammad's Recipe for Remembering is such an adorable book!!! I absolutley love the illustrations!!!

Muhammad's Recipe for Remembering (Hardcover)
by Maidah Ahmad
The story of military service has gone up and down in history. What was celebrated after a victory has been over looked many times. Whole histories have been erased not by others victories but lack of interest. This book shows the nature of military sacrifice and family memory of their pride and remembrance.

The art for this children’s book is really good and I loved that it brings to light the diversity of soldiers who fought in the world wars. Too often, even though called World War, it feels extremely European centric, so getting to see a story showing that people from India and not just Christian backgrounds also fought is so important.

Muhammad wants to play soldiers with the other boys in his class, but they tell him that people like him, meaning people form India and Pakistan weren’t in the world wars, so he can play. But, if he want to cook for them he can.


Muhammad wonders if his family did fight, and finds, by talking to members of his mosque, and his grandfather, that yes, indeed they did. They fought with the British, since they were still a colony at that point and they made Roti, which they shared with the other soldiers.


But, no one has any pictures, because when the Partition happened, people had to escape with whatever they could carry, and often they left things that rememinded them of being a colony behind, such as fighting in the wars.


This is a sweet book, really. All Muhammad wants is to be part of what is going on, and he claims his place with food, because that is the link to the past. It may not be medals, or photos, but simply a food that brought everyone together.
This is an important book for kids, because it shows that they are part of something bigger. That people shouldn't make assumptions, because they don't know.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out on the 10th of September 2024

I am not normally a fan of books about soldiers or war efforts, but I appreciated the message on memory and heritage in this book. It would be an important addition to any library bookshelf about sacrifice, community, and culture. Here, Muhammed is driven by curiosity to uncover the story of his great-grandfather's actions in World War One, as well as the ways soldiers brought 'home' to France for comfort.

I appreciate the addition of the roti recipe, as well as the informative note from the author and the 'Did You Know?' section. This would be a good consideration for a Veteran's day storytime.