Book Review: Zak and His Little Lies by J Samia Mair

Zak has been warned by his parents not to tell lies.  Any more fibs and he won’t be allowed to go to the park.  When faced with difficult situations, what will he do.  The book follows throughout his day as he finds himself at various junctions faced with a choice – tell the truth about a situation and face the consequences or lie and avoid getting into trouble.

On telling a lie he finds himself getting caught out, making his situation worse or backfiring and causing even bigger problems for him.  Eventually his sister gets the blame for his mischief and he has to decide whether he wants to own up or let her get into trouble.

The illustrations are simple and in muted colours with the focus on expressive faces.

The family portrayed in the book are a lovely, wholesome family with positive role models in the parents.  Zak is mischievous and at times very silly, he reminded me a little of my younger son.  My three and five-year-olds enjoyed having this book read to them, my 11 year old son whizzed through it himself, curious to see what it was about.

The book focuses on some beautiful hadith and ayah from the Quran about truthfulness including: “Nothing in the earth and in the heavens is hidden from Allah” (Quran 3:5), I liked that all of the Quran and hadith mentioned are summarised at the end of the book with sources.

An entertaining read, I hope that children pick up the message about truthfulness woven throughout the story.

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