{"product_id":"the-nearness-collection-hardback-gift-set","title":"The Nearness Collection — First Edition Hardbacks","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFor the other end of the day.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA lost ribbon that felt too small to mention. A shape on the bedroom wall. A storm that flattened the tomato plants. Too many figs, and then too much in her head. A week of falling off a bike in the rain. A playtime spent standing by the fence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Nearness Collection is six illustrated stories about the feelings children already have, and the Qur'anic ideas they can begin to meet through them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach story is rooted in one surah.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is no lesson pasted on afterwards. The meaning lives inside what Amira and Yusuf feel, say, whisper, kick, carry and try again.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSix hardbacks · Ages 3–7 · First Edition 2027\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSee inside the stories\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0806\/5446\/7257\/files\/rutab-nearness-see-inside-too-many-figs.jpg?v=1792519147\" alt=\"Pages 4 and 5 of Too Many Figs: Amira carries an overflowing basket of figs and more in her cardigan, beside a single basket and the words One at a time. Allah, help me.\" width=\"1440\" height=\"800\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere are pages four and five of Too Many Figs, just as they are printed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmira has decided it would be much more sensible to carry every fig at once. The basket is full, her cardigan is full, and they very nearly fit. Later that night she will find out that worries stack the same way, and that there is a better way to carry them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat is how all six books go. The feeling arrives first, exactly as a child would feel it, and the comfort comes after, in words they can keep.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe feeling comes first.\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ribbon really is lost. The plants really are flat. The bike really does end up in the grass six times on Sunday. The playtime really was spent standing on your own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe child gets a feeling they recognise before being asked to understand anything.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNearer Than a Whisper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmira loses her ribbon, decides it is too small a thing to mention, and whispers it on the stairs instead.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGoodnight, Long Arms\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere is a shape on the bedroom wall with long arms. It is only a cardigan, but feeling brave takes a little longer, so Amira learns two small surahs she can say into her own two hands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Bird in Yusuf's Chest\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA gale flattens the tomato plants Yusuf grew, something hot and fluttery rises in his chest, and Baba sits down beside him on the wet back step.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eToo Many Figs\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmira tries to carry all the figs at once, and finds out that night that worries stack the same way.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWobble, Wobble, Grass\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe stabilisers come off on Saturday, it rains all week, and Allah's promise turns out to say with, not after: the soft grass was there all along.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Morning Always Comes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmira is left out at playtime, and the next morning she sees a new girl standing in the exact same place.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eFaith, on the days that do not go well\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Abundance Collection is for the part of the day when everything is going well. The fig, the seed, the tray on Eid morning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a second question children ask, usually later, usually with the light off. Where is Allah when I feel alone?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese six answer it, in a form a five year old can actually hold. Not by making the hard thing disappear, which children do not believe, but by showing them where to take it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eOne family, from one story to the next\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmira and Yusuf move through all six, with Mama, Baba and Teta, in the same house and the same garden as The Abundance Collection, a few months further into the year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe tomato plants Yusuf grew in Who Makes It Grow? are the ones the storm flattens. The fig tree is the same tree. Your child will notice, and noticing is the point.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe First Edition pre-order\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRutab Books is an independent publisher. The first edition is one fixed print run, committed to before a single copy is sold. Pre-ordering holds one of those sets for your family, dispatching February 2027.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSix hardbacks in a keepsake slipcase · Complimentary delivery to the UK and eleven further countries\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eMade for the harder evenings\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot six lessons. Not six books about feelings with a verse added at the back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSix stories written to sit on the same shelf as the first six, for the years when a lost ribbon, a shape on the wall and a flattened tomato plant are genuinely the whole world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rutab Books London","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49137549541561,"sku":"RBL-NR-SET-HB","price":84.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0806\/5446\/7257\/files\/the-nearness-collection-first-edition-hardbacks-5789656.png?v=1791176410","url":"https:\/\/rutabbooks.com\/products\/the-nearness-collection-hardback-gift-set","provider":"Rutab Books London","version":"1.0","type":"link"}