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y separately published work icon Does My Head Look Big in This? single work   novel   young adult  
Issue Details: First known date: 2005... 2005 Does My Head Look Big in This?
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Welcome to my world. I'm Amal Abdel-Hakim, a seventeen year-old Australian-Palestinian-Muslim still trying to come to grips with my various identity hyphens. It's hard enough being cool as a teenager when being one issue behind in the latest Cosmo is enough to disqualify you from the in-group. Try wearing a veil on your head and practising the bum's up position at lunchtime and you know you're in for a tough time at school. Luckily my friends support me, although they've got a few troubles of their own. Simone is blonde and gorgeous but has serious image issues and Leila's really intelligent but her parents are more interested in her getting a marriage certificate that her high school certificate! And I thought I had problems...' (Source: back cover).

Exhibitions

21900775
18667821

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon Does My Head Look Big in This? Randa Abdel-Fattah , David Curzon , Australia : Swing Wing , 2019 10434130 2019 single work film/TV

Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources

This work has teaching resources.

Notes

  • Included in the 2006 White Ravens Catalogue compiled by the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany. International understanding.

Affiliation Notes

  • This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it has been translated into Indonesian, and contains references to Muslim culture and Arabic peoples.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Marion Lloyd Books ,
      2006 .
      image of person or book cover 3334923051291593205.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 351p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 22 May 2006
      ISBN: 9780439950589 (pbk.)
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Orchard Books ,
      2007 .
      image of person or book cover 5181770772965703234.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 360p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 01 May 2007
      ISBN: 9780439919470 (hbk.), 0439919479 (hbk.)
    • Lindfield, Chatswood - Gordon - Castlecrag area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Scholastic Australia , 2014 .
      image of person or book cover 2257821196179486211.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 368p.
      Note/s:
      • Published: 1st May 2014
      ISBN: 9781407148113
Alternative title: Ser mitt huvud tjockt ut i den här?
Language: Swedish
    • Stockholm,
      c
      Sweden,
      c
      Scandinavia, Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Bonnier Carlsen Bokforlag ,
      2005 .
      image of person or book cover 7976181552783079119.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 350p.
      Reprinted: 2007
      ISBN: 9163853671, 9789163853678
    • Stockholm,
      c
      Sweden,
      c
      Scandinavia, Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Månpocket ,
      2008 .
      image of person or book cover 576092815295168800.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 350p.
      ISBN: 9789170015816

Other Formats

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon Young Adult Literature : From Romance to Realism Michael Cart , United States of America (USA) : American Library Association , 2016 18087037 2016 multi chapter work criticism

'Cart's authoritative survey is already a go-to text for students of literary studies, teachers, and YA staff. In this new edition he gives it a thorough update to make it even more relevant and comprehensive. Surveying the landscape of YA lit both past and present, this book

  • sketches in the origins of literature targeted at young adults;
  • shows how the best of the genre has evolved to deal with subjects every bit as complex as its audience;
  • closely examines teen demographics, literacy, audiobooks, the future of print, and other key topics;
  • includes updated treatment of best-selling authors like John Green, Suzanne Collins, and Veronica Roth, plus interviews with leaders in the field;
  • presents new and expanded coverage of perennially popular genre fiction, including horror, sci fi, and dystopian fiction;
  • offers an updated overview of LGBTQ literature for young adults, including Intersex;
  • covers such commercial trends as adult purchasers of YA books and the New Adult phenomenon; andfeatures abundant bibliographic material to aid in readers' advisory and collection development.

'Cart's up-to-date coverage makes this the perfect resource for YA librarians who want to sharpen their readers' advisory skills, educators and teachers who work with young people, and anyone else who wants to understand where YA lit has been and where it's heading.'  (Publication summary)

Minority Identity and Counter-Discourse: Indigenous Australian and Muslim-Australian Authors in The Young Adult Fiction Market Catriona Mills , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : Special Issue Website Series , October no. 32 2015;

'This article traces the increasing participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors and Muslim-Australian authors in the Australian young-adult fiction market. Using bibliographical data drawn from the AustLit database, the article first outlines the general parameters of young-adult publishing in Australia since the 1990s, before specifically examining the works produced by Indigenous Australian and Muslim-Australian authors. These two groups share a significant characteristic: although they are often at the forefront of current Australian public discourse, they are more often the object of such speech than the speaking subject. This article examines the extent to which young-adult fiction provides a platform for these authors.'

Source: Abstract.

Challenging Stereotypes : Randa Abdel-Fattah's Use of Parody in Does My Head Look Big in This? Colin Hains , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Bookbird , vol. 53 no. 2 2015; (p. 30-35)
'This article explores anti-Muslim stereotypes and strategies for combating them as presented in Randa Abdel-Fattah's first novel for young readers, Does My Head Look Big in This? First published in 2005, in the wake of terrorist attacks in the United States and Bali, the novel focuses on the everyday life of a second-generation Palestinian teenager who decides, as she puts it, to wear the hijab "full time" in a predominantly non-Muslim school in Australia. As will be argued here, stereotypes of Muslims and, in particular, Muslim women present not only challenges for the novel's central protagonist but also sites for her intervention. Central to this discussion is theoretical work by Judith Butler, whose notion of parody emphasizes the destabilizing effect that parody has for otherwise oppressive images and stereotypes. Rather than engage in a patient, rational, and didactic discussion with what are essentially impatient and irrational representations, Does My Head Look Big in This? adopts a strategy of parody-an exaggerated, often funny, redeployment of anti-Muslim stereotypes-in order to expose the ignorance wherein they originate. In this way, it will be argued, the protagonist of Abdel-Fattah's novel is not only "challenged" by anti-Muslim stereotypes, she "challenges back."' (Publication abstract)
Books and Blogs : Promoting Reading Achievement in Digital Contexts Kerry-Ann O'Sullivan , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Teenagers and Reading : Literary Heritages, Cultural Contexts and Contemporary Reading Practices 2012; (p. 191-209)
Well-Received Muslim Tales Unveil Issues of Racism Fiona Purdon , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 12 - 13 March 2011; (p. 22)
Young Adults Lorien Kaye , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 3 September 2005; (p. 6)

— Review of Does My Head Look Big in This? Randa Abdel-Fattah , 2005 single work novel
It's a Veiled Subject Cindy Lord , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 30 August 2005; (p. 1)

— Review of Does My Head Look Big in This? Randa Abdel-Fattah , 2005 single work novel
Challenges of Teenage Life Stephanie Komesaroff , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Jewish News , 9 September Friday vol. 71 no. 51 2005; (p. 20)

— Review of Does My Head Look Big in This? Randa Abdel-Fattah , 2005 single work novel
Veiled Issues Anna Ryan-Punch , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 275 2005; (p. 61-62)

— Review of Does My Head Look Big in This? Randa Abdel-Fattah , 2005 single work novel ; Still Waving Laurene Kelly , 2005 single work novel
A Head Start in the School of Hard Knocks Nicola Robinson , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12-13 November 2005; (p. 22)

— Review of The Last Anniversary Liane Moriarty , 2005 single work novel ; Does My Head Look Big in This? Randa Abdel-Fattah , 2005 single work novel
Bigotry Stripped Bare Jodie Minus , 2005 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 6-7 August 2005; (p. 14)
True Blue and Muslim Too Karen Hardy , 2005 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 7 September 2005; (p. 3)
Middle Eastern Appearance Rosemary Neill , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 23-24 September 2006; (p. 4-6)
Multicultural Stepping Stones Jodie Minus , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , October vol. 1 no. 2 2006; (p. 10)
Jodie Minus looks at the trajectory of Melina Marchetta's career from 'multicultural' to mainstream writer. Minus expresses the hope that Randa Abdel-Fattah will travel a similar path. 'We should look forward to the day', says Minus, 'when Abdel-Fattah no longer writes only about the problems facing Muslims, but about issues faced by all sorts of Australians'.
'They Don't Know Us, What We Are' : An Analysis of Two Young Adult Texts with Arab-Western Protagonists Jo Lampert , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , December vol. 16 no. 2 2006; (p. 51-57)
This paper argues that since 9/11, the way Arabs are portrayed in Young Adult fiction has become focused on race and ethnic politics in ways that highlight various political agendas fundamentally concerned with 'ethnic loyalties'. Jo Lampert discusses two Young Adult novels, including Australian-born-Muslim, Rhanda Abdel Fattah's text, Does My Head Look Big in This?, by drawing upon postcolonial theories of border crossing and hybridity to look at how representations of Arab-Australian (and Arab-American) identities have shifted since the events of September 11th, 2001. The analysis looks specifically at young Arab-women and how they negotiate questions of identity, positioned as they are in between the 'us and them' dichotomy which underpins racist discourse. The novels discussed are seen to engage with the complexities of Arab-Muslim identity in Western texts by looking at positive ways to embrace mutliple, or hybrid identites.
Last amended 11 Aug 2021 08:48:51
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