Adeeba Jafri poses with some of her books.
Doha: In A Zoom with a View, by Adeeba Jafri children will find themselves relating to all the characters in the book.
Some of the characters find themselves facing frozen screens, some will be found texting while schooling, and some might an embarrassing moment by leaving their microphones on.
The book ends with a promise of hope in the ability of students to overcome these challenges and develop the social, personal and academic resilience one needs in the current pandemic era.
A Zoom with a View is available to borrow at the Qatar National Library.
It is also available through various vendors, including www.bookbagdoha.
One can also purchase a signed copy directly from the author at adeebajafri.com
Adeeba Jafri is a teacher, writer and IB Coordinator from NY, currently based in Doha, Qatar for the past 13 years.
She is also the author of The Baby Garden, Alia and the Story of the Rose, The Path that Allah Made as well as a YA novella called Show Yourself.
Her essays and poetry have been featured in various literary magazines, Prohze, Fahmidan Magazine, BluntMoms, YourTeenMag, Raising Mothers, the B’K magazine, Brown Sugar Lit, and Agapanthus Literary. She also teaches Islamic studies to Muslim expat teens and tweens using an online platform. You can find her on Instagram @adeebajafri_official or Twitter @adeeba_jafri
When the pandemic emerged in Qatar in early 2020, Adeeba Jafri was one of many parents who watched her children struggle with the challenges of online learning.
There were moments when her boys (ages 13, 15 and 17 at the time) would get locked out of Zoom classrooms, log in to the wrong class, or worse, share the wrong screen to their teacher and peers.
These challenges were frustrating, but also incredibly amusing. How ironic was it that while the children were limited in movement, but the virus could move unhindered, without bounds, disrupting the learning of children all around the world.
This idea became the basis of Adeeba’s latest children’s book, A Zoom with a View. She had previously published three Islamic-centered books through Goodword Books in early 2000. These books were called The Baby Garden, Alia and the Story of the Rose, and The Path that Allah Made.
Raising four children took up most of her time so she took a break from writing. Life under lockdown, however, gave her the opportunity to create more books. In 2021, she published two books: Show Yourself, a YA novella that reflects on the lack of mental health awareness in Muslim communities, and A Zoom with a View, a family-friendly book that illustrates all of the frustrating moments that come with virtual learning.
