16th meeting

Our today's story - "The Treasure Hunt" by Nick Butterworth

Treasures was the topic for our today's book club. As we sat down and divided ourselves into 'ladies side' and 'men's side' on the carpet, Umm Uzair asked us if we knew, what treasure was. Many hands went up and many voices were ready to clarify that treasure business is about gold, jewels and other precious things hidden somewhere far away. As we started to think about treasures more, we realized that not only mysterious treasures (the kinds you read about in adventure books) can be treasures. For us, treasure can be anything we feel special about: may be a toy or some special person we like, or even memories of places we have visited or events we have attended. Then, Umm Uzair asked us to think of what treasures we, as Muslims, have. Answers started pouring - prayers, fasting, Prophet Muhammad (saw), Hajj... and so on. Umm Uzair pointed out that one of the greatest treasures that we, as Muslims, have is the Quran - the wonderful book, in which Allah (swt) has told us, how to live a life, which would be pleasing to Him.

Today's story was about Percy, the park keeper, who had made a treasure hunt for the park animals. He had placed at different places of the park picture clues, which animals had to find and follow, in order to find a treasure at the end. Percy had kept a bag of chocolate money wrapped in goldden papers as the treasure but... unfortunately, as he was palcing the clues in the park, he had eaten all the chocolates one by one. Although animals did not find the actual treasure they were supposed to find, they did find a friend along the way - the cow Lucy. They all agreed at the end that real treasure and a good friend are about the same - very precious.

After the story, Umm Uzair gave to each of us a piece of paper and asked us to draw our special treasure. When the drawing was ready, we had to write, what we have made, and why this thing was our treasure. The pictures came out to be really beautiful and colourful, Masha'Allah!

Adam had made a picture of his best friend Talha, who was his special treasure, because he liked to play with him.






Muhammad made a picture of a fox. It was difficult for Umm Uzair to guess, if this is the fox from the story they had just read or may be some toy Muhammad had at home?






Uzair made a very colourful picture of his good friend Umer, with whom he liked to play cricket.








Rumaisa made pictures of really many things she felt were special for her. Her treasures were books, time, dolls, flower, dress, shoes and dollhouse. On the other side of her picture, she made herself.








Hafsa also worked on both sides of her paper. She told us that she has made her favourite friend Ureeda (her cousin), with whom she likes to play very much. Letters "H" and "U" over the heads of her girls show who is who. On the other side, she made lots of beautiful hearts for their friendship.

Affan made a very colourful picture of the seaside hut where he and his family sometimes go. He said that it was special because he could bring his friends there and he had a dog there.

Affan's sister made also a really colourful picture but she wouldn't tell us what was there. :) Alright, sometimes it is perfectly OK to be shy. :)








And last but not least, our smallest book club visitor Zakariya also made lots of special pictures of his treasures. As you can see, his treasures are his cars! Many of them! :) And on the other side of his picture, he made his hand print.