Ahmed's Journey is not about camel races or Ahmed's culture. It is a mindfulness book without the ever present white character that seems to so often accompany that type of book. As far as that goes, it is a nice change. However, the story itself seems flat, and despite some lovely illustrations, the story is unable to carry the book.

Ahmed's Journey by Jill Manly follows the titular Ahmed as he goes to the Camel Races. This is a tradition among his people, and Ahmed is going to participate for the first time. He's nervous, but by observing his favourite camel, Jamal, Ahmed finds his centre. Thanks to Jamal, Ahmed begins to be able to see his own emotions more objectively, and to appreciate what each has to teach in turn. This was a fairly quick read with some great lessons. It presents concepts of mindfulness in a manner accessible to young children. That it delivered these lessons through a Middle Eastern setting was great! It lends diversity to children's books, giving subconscious lessons on diversity and culture. My younger cubs and I read this together and enjoyed it. Perfect for classroom use!

***Many thanks to Netgalley & Jabu Books Publishing for providing an ecopy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Ahmed's Journey is not so much a story as an exercise in breathing and mindfulness as applied to children. It's a pretty book and an interesting framework for delivering the lesson, but I feel the text is not very compelling. This isn't a book that I anticipate children reaching out for in story time, but it could be useful as an aid in a class of children dealing with anxiety.

<i>Ahmed's Journey</i> by Jill Apperson Manly is a fairly quick children's book with engaging illustrations detailing the experience of a young boy who deals with the anxiety of participating in the traditional camel races of his country and family. A wonderful way of introducing more diversity into the available children's books, <i>Ahmed's Journey </i>portrays emotions and feelings that just about any child in a new situation, especially one heaped in tradition and expectation, will feel and have to navigate.

Emotions are always an especially important aspect of life for children to read about, learn from, and experience themselves. This book does a brilliant job of portraying these emotions and how a young man learns about them in himself and manages to work his way through the feelings in order to function within his life. And for any young child who does not yet have the words to discuss their own emotions, to see it in a book is likely to be majorly beneficial.

I really appreciated the message within this short story and found the illustrations pleasant to look at though I wouldn't call them exceptional. I definitely appreciated the diversity portrayed in the book and the opportunity to connect with and learn about a young man in the Middle East. This is definitely a book I would suggest to have on your shelves for your kids for a variety of reasons.

<i>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. </i>

"Ahmed's Journey" is a children's book that contains beautiful illustrations. I would love to see a physical copy of this book as it was a bit challenging to read as an ebook. However, it is beautiful and I'm so happy that there is a children's book set in the Middle East.

'Ahmed's Journey: A Story of Self-Discovery' by Jill Apperson Manly is about a young boy from another culture who is experiencing anxiety and how he finds a way to deal with it.

Ahmed and his family have travelled quite a ways to participate in the Camel Races. Ahmed and his camel Jamal are to be in the race, but Ahmed is apprehensive. In a walk through the desert, Ahmed finds a way to calm himself and look forward to the race.

It's an okay story with guided meditations at the end. The illustrations are a bit mediocre. I like stories about other cultures, but this one felt bland in story and illustrations.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Jabu Books Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

Ahmed learns a lot of things about how to take care of himself, by looking at how his favorite camel Jamal, a saker falcon and other animals stay calm despite having to go through external sandstorms. Showing a metaphorical sandstorm inside Ahmed's body is a great way of helping kids understand the thoughts, feelings and emotions they go through and how to maintain stillness through it all.

The illustrations are beautiful. Unfortunately, due to a formatting error, it is impossible to see more than 1/4 of a page at a time and therefore I cannot read the story.

If you were to pick this book up because you wanted to learn about Ahmed's camel races, you would be disappointed. Although the camel races is what get Ahmed in a tissy, what this book is about how he calms himself down about it, and how you can do the same.

Although this is under the auspices of being a multicultural book, this is really just a backdrop for teaching mindfulness.

And that in itself is not wrong, and kids do need to know how to calm themselves, as do adults.

The pictures are interesting. The animals and wildlife are well drawn.

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So, for being a good book to show how to calm yourself, it does the trick. For being a book about Ahmed and his world, it does show it. I would like to think the setting was chosen to engage children more then showing them how to calm yourself before a big test.

But it doesn't works for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.