Lion on the Inside: How One Girl Changed Basketball

Lion on the Inside tells the true story of one of its authors, Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, the first Muslim woman to play NCAA basketball while wearing a hijab. Her advocacy regarding regulations related to head coverings in professional basketball led to important changes that will benefit women and girls in sport for years to come, even if they did not help Bilqis herself.

The reader is first introduced to Bilqis as a child, and the narrative followers her career through her school-aged years, with a focus on high school. She still holds the high school scoring record for both men and women in the state of Massachusetts. In high school, Abdul-Qaadir was once told she could not play due to the fact that she was wearing a hijab, and she was only allowed to continue after her team rallied behind her. Her career was off to an incredible start, even seeing Bilqis invited to the White House to play basketball with President Obama. After her stint in the NCAA league, Bilqis wanted to go pro, but again she came up against regulations around headwear, effectively forcing her to choose between her faith and her career. She chose her faith but eventually got the ban on headscarves overturned. Lion on the Inside is certainly a powerful story, and it’s easy to see why Kids Can Press has included it in their “Citizen Kid” collection which encourages children to engage with global issues.

While the message of the book is important, the execution is not always even. The story is told in free verse. Sometimes there are rhymes present, sometimes not. This book could definitely be used as a read-aloud, but some readers may struggle to find the flow at times. Sometimes it reads more like poetry, and sometimes more like standard dialogue. Because the story is being told in verse, it is kept relatively meta by necessity. Many of the finer details, though, are expounded upon in the back matter which goes into more detail.

One detail that seems to be conspicuously missing throughout the narrative, though, is the significance of the hijab. It is referenced several times, and readers see Bilqis wearing it for the first time at age, but the narrative never explains why she may not want to take it off. One line near the end of the book actually reads, “I could take it off and play. I could.” While I understand the intentions of the authors here, I could see this statement being confusing for children. And for a series that is supposed to start dialogue, I would assume that the authors are addressing a wide audience and not assuming that those reading the story would understand the significance wearing hijab holds for those who choose to. This could even be done through a simple line explaining what the hijab means to Bilqis if the concern is speaking for all women who wear hijab. This is not like asking a Christian who wears a cross necklace to take it off for a game because there is a rule against necklaces. In this instance, the cross is a symbol of religion, but it is not necessarily an integral expression of the religion, itself. This would make the passages where Bilqis ‘chooses’ her religion much more impactful as the context would be there to explain that she’s not simply choosing to honor her religion but is being forced to choose between her future career and the dictates of her religion. Because this information is lacking and because there are several lines questioning whether she should take off the hijab and stating that she could, some readers may fail to fully grasp the importance of Bilqis’s actions and what was truly at stake for her.

Illustrations for the book were done by Katherine Ahmed, and they succeed in portraying the reality of the story, though they do lack some consistency. Where Ahmed excels is her close-up portraits of individuals and in creating a sense of moment. This is obviously important in a book about sport. There are a few pages though where proportions and perspectives seem somewhat off or distorted and not in a way that seems to imply artistic intent. Hands, especially, are inconsistent throughout. The art was created digitally, and unfortunately there are some backgrounds and other details where this shows. Shading is likewise inconsistent. Ahmed’s particular style of shading works wonderfully when depicting the texture of a basketball or jeans but sometimes leaves skin or other clothing items looking unfinished. In the illustrator bio, readers will learn that this is Ahmed’s first picture book after receiving a mentorship in 2021. This is a competent first undertaking and hopefully Ahmed’s style will only become more refined with time.

While there are a few areas where the text, story, and illustrations feel slightly uneven, Lion on the Inside: How One Girl Changed Basketball tells an important story, one that may inspire children. The book would be particularly effective in a classroom setting or similar scenario where there is ample opportunity for adult intervention in the learning process. This is a topic that is not explored frequently in children’s books and would make a solid purchase for school and public libraries.