Abaza’s story starts out similarly to other Ramadan stories, with a young boy waiting to break his fast, but a comment from his mother and aunt turns things around. They speak of the first Ramadan the two women had and the mother not wanting to sleep as she might miss the Ramadan Drummer. We proceed to learn that before modern technology (such as alarm clocks) a man would go around the town beating a drum, to make sure everyone was awake for the last meal before their day long fasts at sunrise. Through the dream of the child, we learn the religious, spiritual and historic aspects of Ramadan. Dinara Mirtalipova’s illustrations are deep and rich, immensely detailed and dreamy, even when things are set in the here and now vs. the dream sequence. ~ Reviewed by Jeanette