I really enjoyed this book. It read like a more detailed version of some of those Rebel Girl books that I have bought for my daughter. I enjoyed that it had well done, color illustrations much like those books. I also enjoyed that it went into more depth in detail than those books do, as I am often left with questions wanting to know more about the people, but this book gave me lots of interesting information on the people it covered. I also appreciated that there was a range of locations the people were from and areas they contributed to (i..e politics, art, film-making, science). This could be a valuable resource to a teacher or school library and would be a great read to any youth reader who enjoys biographies.

How do you combat a few decades of casual bigotry? You use the power of knowledge. In this case, we read about different Muslim historical figures that changed the world for the better or impacted it. From doctors to royals, authors draw from sources like the Kitab al-Tasrif to talk about surgeons that developed life-saving tools and child prodigies that contributed to metaphysics.

When you are a minority, it is hard to see yourself. Not helping is that history constantly changes. A conqueror to one nation may be a savior to another, as we see with Saladin and the Crusades. And for non-Muslims like me, I had never even heard of India having a female king, albeit one that ruled for only four years. That is so cool and I wish I had heard of it.

I admit that the digital copy is hard to read because the pages are huge. Regardless, The Wonders We Seek is a must-read, especially if you are a history buff.

The Wonders We Seek is a collection of short biographies that highlight prominent or inspirational Muslims throughout history. Each synopsis is interesting and approachable, an appetizer of sorts for appreciation and exposure to a new culture. While I struggled a little with the names and felt I'd never be able to remember these individuals, this is an important beginning for me to widen my own understanding and perspective. As I learn more, I hope to be able to remember some of these individuals and their contributions. I do not intentionally harbor any ill-will toward Muslims, have taken several world religion courses in college, and believe my faith and the tenets of Islam carry a good number of similarities. I do, however, have very limited exposure to Muslim individuals and their lives. This text was helpful in replacing cultural bias prominent in American society, particularly in the years since 9/11.

I'm excited to read Ibtihaj Muhammad's memoir with my daughter, as her teachings on modesty resonate very clearly with our standards of integrity and commitment to our beliefs. I have long-loved Malala and echo the value of books like this one in changing the world: "With guns you can kill terrorists; with education, you can kill terrorism."

Read as a nomination in the non-fiction book award category as a panelist for Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards (Cybils Awards). Having read other books by Saadia Faruqi in the Easy Reader/Early Chapter Book category, I have great respect for her work.

Thank you, HarperCollins, and Netgalley for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I love the illustrated artwork and style of this compilation of the leaders. I think this is an easy enough read for most children. As an early-twenties adult, I actually didn't really know many of these fantastic people and I think children would benefit from more of this representation. History is often told in a particular lens, but I think it's important to recognize other important people that should also be acknowledged in those history lessons.

The Wonders We Seek is a collection of biographies of Muslims. While these figures may not be featured in many books, this book appeared overwhelming. There were lots of words on the pages which may not appeal to struggling readers. Readers may also struggle with names. Given these, this would not appeal to my middle school students as they would get frustrated with reading.

I've made no secret of my fondness for profile collections. I love to read about figures left out of my history education and the impact they made on the world. And this collection provides us with a wide variety of influences: athletes, scientists, philosophers artists, political activists and more. The early section has a special focus on mathematics and the sharing of information, the structures on which many of our educational systems were built that would not be possible without Muslim influence. Some of these figures will be quite familiar to all readers (Muhammad Ali, Malala, and such) while others will probably be new but no less inspiring as a result. These profiles have enough detail to feel informative but not so much as to be overwhelming. A solid read.

I'm very grateful to have access to this nonfiction book of short autobiographies There were so many people I had never heard of but am interested in learning more about. This is going to be a great reference in the book club I run that has a focus on diversity.

Celebrating the wonders of Muslim people and their gifts to the world is the treat provided in this text. Especially needed in a world where brown skin can quickly lead to threats of terrorism. Flip the script and let’s show the incredibleness of those of Muslim background.

The Wonders We Seek is an incredible way to learn about Muslims who have made an impact on the world. Going in, I had only heard of 4 of the 30 people featured in the book, and honestly only knew a good amount about Malala Yousafzai.

I am so glad that I got the opportunity to learn about these amazing men and women. Being an American, I admit I was fairly uneducated in the advances Muslims have contributed to society.

A lovely highlight of and tribute to influential Muslims. Would recommend to libraries to shine light on the ways muslims have changed and shaped the world for the better.

The Wonders We Seek: Thirty Incredible Muslims Who Helped Shape the World by Saadia Faruqi and Aneesa Mumtaz provides an overview of influential individuals who are Muslim. The authors begin from centuries past to present day.

Some things I enjoyed:
As mentioned earlier, I was not familiar with many of the individuals, so I definitely felt like I learned new information.
I did not have to read the book in a linear order, I could pick a person and go to their page.
Muslims are often not given the credit deserved for their contributions throughout the centuries, this book puts them front and center.

Some things I would have liked to see:
I would find it helpful to have a map included along with the picture of the individual being introduced. If I were reading this to my daughter, I would want her to know and see the location/countries/cities/towns being discussed.
The book is somewhat dense, and I would definitely read it to my child, but only a few people at a time. It’s not a book to read through in only a few settings. I could see it being used as a reference book, but not sure it would be a book that would get reread numerous times.

Overall, The Wonders We Seek: Thirty incredible Muslims Who Helped Shape the World is a solid read that I would read together with my own child.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books, Quill Tree Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This books covers the life of multiple influential Muslims. It provided some background information on their life along with all that particular person accomplished. Great to introduce students to other Muslims that might be not as well known, an introduction to a biography unit, or just nonfiction reading in general.

I've noted over the years how much I want to love these type of collections, but ultimately I just don't.  The reason I gave this one a try was quite simply the reassuring introduction.  The book immediately detailed the checklist required to make it into the book, the criteria required, and acknowledged the limitations that the book overall, and personalities included, would have in the presentation. There are sources at the end for each of the 30 people included as well.  Unlike most books in the genre, this book got out in front of my most common complaints: the lack of transparency for how the people were selected, where the primary source information was obtained from, how the order is organized, and the Eurocentric and pop culture framing that is both pandering and renders the book cumbersome a few years after it is published.  For the most part, this book is the best I've seen yet, but that isn't to say I loved it.  While the requirements to be included were made apparent, there is still a lot of opinionated statements about how "religious" or "conservative" or "devout" or "mainstream" or "strict" a person is or was, that rubbed me the wrong way.  Also knowing that the person had to identify as Muslim to be eligible seems like a black and white issue, but a few of the personalities are very controversial (some noted and some not), and I am not an expert at all.  One of the problems with books like this is they present as non fiction, and no matter the transparency, just the mere fact of who is included and who is not is a judgement call and wrought with bias.  It is nice to thumb through, but I don't know that it would get repeated use, or that it could really be used as a reference.  It is informative and I recognize that I went in to it very skeptical, but only a few text passages connected faith to the person's accomplishments, and so while they identify as Muslim, it doesn't necessarily radiate pride or admiration for Muslims as a whole.  For better or worse, if anything, it made me want to conduct my own research on many that were featured. 

A few I was concerned by, which made me question the ones that I learned something new about. Clearly there are reasons that I shy away from non-fiction.  I wish the book would have had Muslim beta readers, I am willing to assume that it did not.  Take for example the section on Saladin, I absolutely get why his name is shown as both Saladin and Salah al-Din, the book is in English presumably for western readers and that is how he is known.  But why when it says that his real name is Yusuf, is Joseph in the parenthesis? No one else's names in the book are given the English equivalents of their Arabic or Persian or other native language. Similarly so few tied back to Islam or an Islamic perspective being credited for having a role in their noteworthy accomplishments.  Even Muhammad Yunus when it discusses how interest was not a part of the micro loan process- it didn't add even one more sentence explaining that interest is not allowed in Islam, why leave that out?  

I liked that the parameters required that the person was influential more globally than just to their own country, but Rebiya Kadeer seemed to be more localized in her work with Muslims in China even when she moved out of China, blurring the rigid standards of who was to be included and who was to be left out.  

I do like that it mentions Rumi's religion is often conveniently ignored as the west has made him a hero and chosen to forget his faith.  Similarly, I like that it tries to correct when Ibn Battuta is called the Marco Polo of Islam, for in reality Marco Polo was the Ibn Battuta of Europe.  And I appreciated that Benazir Bhutto was noted as being controversial and not well liked.

I learned so much while reading this book. The short biographies are concise and interesting. Biographies and factual information about people from history are always in need — if not for fun reading (although for that too) for research for school. This is a helpful text that I recommend adding.

I once read a book from the library with my daughter that illustrated women from the Marvel heroes, gave a biography, and had inspiration for how my daughter could be a hero of her own woven throughout the pages. She liked the pictures, I liked the message. This book was that, except so much more. Our family is mixed, and whatever she hears about Muslims from kids at school or on the news, I'll be sure to have this book on her shelf so she can know how amazing her grandfather's people are.

This book was great. I can see this being a really cool coffee-table book or something left out so someone could easily pick it up and browse. It was listed as a graphic novel, but I would think it’s more of an illustrated book because it’s VERY text heavy. It’s also really educational, but with only 3-5 pages dedicated to each person, it leaves lots of room for outside research and is more of an introduction to the 30 subjects of the book. I can imagine a young reader reading some the small excerpts here, and then being inspired to do further studies on their own. Overall, a really cool book that I’d love to own!

I highly enjoyed learning more about the wonderful people who helped to shape our world. As somebody who does a lot of reading and research into people from different pasts and religious ideology than I was raised with, I loved how many similarities I felt with the stories of these people. Every person is different, and every person has common ties to the next. I do feel like it was a bit hard for me personally to read because of how blocky it was with the amount of text to picture ratio. It would probably be best as a research book, I'm not sure kids would be able to plow through the amounts of text. However, it was very understandable, relatable, and informative. We could use more books like this on the shelves!

A wonderful collection of biographies of notable Muslims. Great for research or just general reading. I would recommend for a slightly older audience- 3rd grade and up- do to the length and complexity of the writing. Overall, a really great resource and a wonderful addition to any collection.

The Wonders We Seek is a beautifully designed and well-written book, expanding knowledge of Muslim thinkers and visionaries. A vital classroom/school library addition.

The illustrations for this collection of biographies are beautiful. I like that it is consistent with artistic illustrations, instead of photographs for the more recent Muslims featured. I appreciate that Muslims from all different countries, background, and time periods are featured. The selection of Muslims also encompasses so many different areas such as science, medicine, activism, arts, sports, etc. This is an excellent resource book to have on hand for Middle and High school libraries. I think having more books like this will help fight ignorance, racism, and bias in Western textbooks. The book is not proselytizing at all, and it is extremely informative and easy to read, refraining from a lot of technical jargon. Of course, the glossary at the end is very helpful. There are research references and links for those wanting more information. I would have liked to see a timeline and map as well. I will definitely order this for our school library.