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Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Books for Young People on Israeli & Palestinian Life

 

Editor:  Our Western Washington University librarian has compiled this list of classroom book suggestions to help young people understand Israeli & Palestinian life.  A special thank you to Sylvia Gabrielle Tag, WWU Librarian & Associate Professor,  for her contribution to our understanding.  For an earlier post that provided an annotated bibliography for educators and youth on Ukraine, click here.

  

Israeli & Palestinian Youth Come Together: An Annotated Bibliography

Sylvia Gabrielle Tag

 

This list highlights books for young people that contain both Israeli and Palestinian characters, settings, and narratives. The list is heartbreakingly short – one might say tragically so considering the current conflict. The list begins with true stories, providing evidence of our shared humanity. Recently, librarians and educators are using the term “true stories” versus the traditional genre of nonfiction. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and this is true for the photographs in true stories as well as the images in picture books. Middle school readers are ready to tackle tough issues and still look to grown-ups for guidance. Realistic fiction, fantasy and documentary books are provided for teens. We hope that more books will be published that connect us - these books offer a place to start.

 

True Stories / Nonfiction

 

Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak by Deborah Ellis – Based on interviews of children and teenagers in Israel and Palestine. Ellis alternates Israeli and Palestinian voices and prefaces each of the accounts by an informative discussion of pertinent issues and a profile of the interviewee and his/her experiences. A perceptive and empathetic presentation.

 

Sharing Our Homeland: Palestinian and Jewish Children at Summer Peace Camp by Trish Marx - Summer is here, and Alya, an Israeli Palestinian girl, and Yuval, an Israeli Jewish boy, are off to Peace Camp. At camp, Alya, Yuval, and the other campers enjoy two weeks of fun in close contact with one another. They participate in sports, create arts and crafts projects, and go on field trips. The children begin to understand what their homeland means to both sides. They learn not to be afraid and to respect one another.

 

Neve Shalom Wahat Al-Salaam: Oasis of Peace by Laurie Dolphin - This cooperative school outside of Jerusalem brings Jews and Arabs together in the hopes that by raising their children together, they will create a peaceful co-existence. Told from the point of view of two 10-year-old boys, with photographs throughout.

 

Picture Books

 

Yaffa and Fatima: Shalom, Salaam by Fawzia Gilani-Williams – A touching picture book about two neighbors―one Jewish, one Muslim― who have always been best friends. In Gilani's retelling of a folktale―which has both Jewish and Arab origins―differences are not always causes for conflict and friendship can overcome any obstacle.

 

A Moon for Moe and Mo by Jane Breskin Zalben - Moses Feldman, a Jewish boy, lives at one end of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, while Mohammed Hassan, a Muslim boy, lives at the other. One day they meet at Sahadi's market while out shopping with their mothers and are mistaken for brothers. A friendship is born, and the boys bring their families together to share rugelach and date cookies in the park as they make a wish for peace.

 

Snow in Jerusalem by Deborah Da Costa - Avi and Hamudi are two boys who live in Jerusalem's Old City―Avi in the Jewish Quarter and Hamudi in the Muslim Quarter. To each boy, the other's neighborhood is an alien land. And although neither boy knows it, both are caring for the same beautiful white stray cat. One day the boys follow the cat as she travels the winding streets and crosses the boundaries between the city’s quarters.

 

Middle Grades

 

Wishing Upon the Same Stars by Jacquetta Nammar Feldman - When twelve-year-old Yasmeen Khoury moves with her family to San Antonio, all she wants to do is fit in. When Yasmeen meets her neighbor, Ayelet Cohen, a first-generation Israeli American and the two girls become friends. But when Yasmeen’s grandmother moves in after her home in Jerusalem is destroyed, Yasmeen and Ayelet must grapple with how much closer the events of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are than they’d realized. Can peace begin with them?

 

Samir and Yonatan by Daniella Carmi - Samir, a Palestinian boy, is sent for surgery to an Israeli hospital where he has two otherworldly experiences, making friends with an Israeli boy, Yonatan, and traveling with him to Mars where Samir finds peace over his younger brother's death in the war. 

 

Running on Eggs by Anna Levine - It all starts when Karen and Yasmine trade lunch boxes. Such an act would hardly raise eyebrows anywhere else, but Karen lives on an Israeli kibbutz and Yasmine in a nearby Palestinian village, and distrust between the two cultures runs deep. Running on Eggs offers a frank portrayal of modern-day Israel and recounts the story of two girls whose loyalty to each other helps them overcome the obstacles in their path.

 

Young Adult

 

Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed – A book about dating, friendship, families, and resistance. Two teen activists canvas the streets of New York City and learn to navigate cross-cultural differences that run deep.

 

You Asked for Perfect by Laura Silverman - The story follows Ariel, a Jewish teen, as he fights for valedictorian all while falling for Amir, the Muslim son of family friends. Significantly, Ariel and Amir are never challenged regarding their religion and sexuality. These novel resists assumptions that necessitate cultural conflict.

 

Internment by Samira Ahmed – In this disturbing fantasy novel, 17-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens. With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the camp, and her Jewish boyfriend on the outside, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the internment camp's director and his guards. 

 

A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valérie Zenatti - Seventeen-year-old Tal Levine of Jerusalem, despondent over the ongoing Arab Israeli conflict, puts her hopes for peace in a bottle and asks her brother, a military nurse in the Gaza Strip, to toss it into the sea, leading ultimately to friendship and understanding between her and an "enemy." 

  

The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan - For older readers, this book is based on a 43-minute radio documentary that Tolan produced for "Fresh Air," this volume pursues the story into the homes and histories of the two families at its center through the present day. Their stories form a personal microcosm of the last 70 years of Israeli-Palestinian history 

   

Growing Self-esteem in Israeli and Palestinian Young People 

Jewish Readers Deserve to See Themselves Outside of the Holocaust and Holidays by BrocheAroe Fabian 

 

12 Children's and YA Books by Palestinian Authors by Hannah Moushabeck 

  

Resources on Grief, Loss, and Understanding

Not If But When: Books for Young People About Death and Loss is a website of book titles. Children and teens facing the loss of friends and family, or their own mortality, need help navigating the emotional, physical, and practical upheavals and restorations. Books offer opportunities to ask questions, wonder, and simply acknowledge the realities of their circumstances. https://www.notifbutwhen.org/

 

Hello, Dear Enemy: Picture Books for Peace is a traveling exhibit from the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany. The exhibit is divided into four themes: Experiences of War, Destruction, and Displacement; Power Struggles and the Origin and Escalation of Violence; Prejudice, Ostracism, and Imagined Enemies; Utopias of Peace and Anti-War Books. List of exhibit books here: https://libguides.wwu.edu/clic/hello-dear-enemy

 

The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) is a non-profit organization which represents an international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together in order to promote international understanding through children's books https://www.ibby.org/

 

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