I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Covers a lot of science related content. A great read for kids interested in space or astronomy. Love the cultural information of the family.

Great early chapter book for my elementary library!! The representation is an important culture to include for all students to see diverse characters, and there often aren't enough in this level of book. This will be a great addition to my early chapter book collection along with Yasmin and many more engaging, full color, partial illustration chapter books.

Siman Nuurali's Sadiq and the Desert Star provides young readers with an inspiring story of a boy who loves to learn and look at the starts! I was thrilled to learn this is the first in a series of four books (so far). My son, like many children, falls in love with characters. Sadiq is quirky, kind, and resilient. The perfect character to build a series around!

The Desert Star pivots around Sadiq's feelings about his father going on a business trip, his desire to learn about the stars his father talks with him about, and his attempt to find like-minded students to create a club to explore his new interest.

Wonderful book! I love the cultural diversity of recent children's literature. This is a perfect addition to the 21st century classroom and the STEAM themes are sure to be appreciated by teachers.

An enjoyable book about a young boy who loves space.
The children in my class loved me reading this to them. I introduced it as our ‘read for fun’ class book. I liked the fact the characters were from a different culture that is not seen in many children’s books. I have a few Muslim children in my class and they were delighted that they could relate to the characters.

I loved that this book started off with some key information to help the readers learn a little about Somalia and the language. I liked that the book changed those terms to different colors, so as to alert young readers that they were there and remind them that they could refer to the beginning if they forgot what a word meant. Additionally, I loved that this book showed kids taking matters into their own hands by starting a club, researching telescopes and creating one of their own when cost of a premade one served to be too expensive. I especially liked the directions and supply list they teach the reader how to DIY and make a telescope just like theirs. Another part I liked was the fact that they invited the neighbors over for a stargazing party, so as to celebrate science and their accomplishment. The illustrations looked gorgeous as well. I think that many young students will like this story, the illustrations, and future stories about Sadiq.

This is a fantastic chapter book that will appeal to a wide range of readers. Students will be drawn in by Sadiq’s curiosity, ingenuity, and perseverance. Cultural elements are incorporated seamlessly. Vocabulary provided before and after the story will help students with comprehension and the extension activities will help enthusiastic readers take the story a step further. Very well done! Looking forward to more books in the Sadiq series.

Extremely low stakes early chapter book - not a lot of adventure/character/humor driving things - but I liked the multicultural appeal and the mixture of fun, bright illustrations and educational resources such as glossaries.

Sadiq and the Desert Star is an early chapter book about Sadiq, a Somali Muslim American boy. Sadiq's third grade class is taking a trip to the observatory, where he and his classmates decide to start a Space Club and raise money for a telescope. There's not much plot to this book, and setbacks (Sadiq didn't hear the instructions at the observatory! Telescopes are very expensive!) all turn out to be very minor, usually resolving within the next line and before Sadiq could have an emotional response to them. I wish we had gotten a bit more of Sadiq showing an emotion besides enthusiasm, but depth in these length chapter books can be difficult to master. I liked the colorful illustrations, the details we get about Sadiq's large family, and the diversity of his friends. I also like the extras at the end, especially the instructions for making your own telescope. Astronomy is a popular subject right now and I'm actively working to diversify my first chapter book offerings, so I'll certainly pick up the first few in the series for our library.

Terrific chapter book with Somali protagonist! Much-needed for Somali and non-Somali students. Story about Sadiq's field trip to the planetarium and starting a Space Club at school with friends is fun and relatable to students. Sadiq finding a solution to getting a telescope is a great way to show young readers how to be resourceful. When he and his friends pitch in with ideas for the fund raiser, readers will also learn how to collaborative and creative. Seeing Sadiq's family at home, learning the story of the Desert Star, and cooking the sambuus was also excellent. This book is timely and a perfect read for this age group. Highly recommend!

This book was received as an ARC from Capstone-Picture Window Books in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I loved this book from cover to cover. We actually have patrons that are Somali and will love this book even more. I loved instead of getting upset about the telescope, Sadiq found the ambition to look up some supplies to build one himself and did everything he could to see if he could find the desert star from his father's stories. The pictures were beautifully illustrated and were very cartoon-like so children especially from our library will go crazy for this book.

We will consider adding this book to our JFiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Picture Window Books for an eARC of this book.

Sadiq and his friends are learning about space in school. When they see Mars on a trip to an planetarium, they decide to create a space club and raise money for a telescope so they can look at the planet any time they want. When they realise how expensive telescopes are, they learn to make one themselves, raise the funds, and hold a backyard stargazing party.

This is an enjoyable transitional chapter book. There are too few books at this level with diverse male characters, and I love that Sadiq is Somali and shares facts and stories about his family's culture. I will be adding this book to my collection when it is released in August.

Sadiq is going to be an excellent new series for early readers along the same lines of Yasmin. Sadiq, the main character shares his pains, interests, friends and love with the reader. A young Somali Muslim just doing life. I loved the before pages that taught some of the vocabulary and the post pages that helped the reader respond to the story.
My only critique of that it felt to me that the story ended somewhat abruptly.
Can't wait to share the series with students.

🌠🎶 can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars 🎶🌠 

Sadiq and the Desert Star is a middle grade short chapter book that blends with graphic novel. Sadiq is our main character. Sadiq loves science and is ecstatic to learn his class is going on a field trip to an observatory to look at Mars. His class loves it so much they decide to build their own telescope to look at Mars and stars any time they want. 

Sadiq and his love of science made me reminiscent of how much I loved science and science experiments at his age. I loved the beautiful illustrations and the mix of culture into the story. I saw that there's going to be a series of Sadiq books released in August 2019. I think every school should have these cute but informative books in their classrooms or library. 💕📚 

***Thank you to Netgalley and Capstone Picture Window Books for letting me experience a Sadiq adventure.***