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[CCBC-Net] Books about the Middle East
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From: Elsa Marston <elsa.marston>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 17:31:17 -0500
Dear Megan and CCBC-net sbscribers--
As a brand new member of this listserve, I 'm still not sure of the standard operating procedures and didn't realize that there is a specified time limit for topics. And as children's literature about the Middle East has been my main concern for about 20 years, both as an author and a specialist, I do have something to say on the subject. I hope you'll allow me to squeeze in under the wire and add my bit on this topic. Sorry that I couldn't do it in a more timely way.
I concentrate on books and stories (fiction) from picture book to novel that focus on the present-day Middle East. The Arabian Nights and folk tales, etc., make charming picture books, but they don't tell a young American a thing about what's going on in the Arab/Muslim world in the 20th-21st century, and why it's important to understand something about real people in our own time. Many of the books mentioned by other CCBC-Net people (I may have overlooked some) are on my own list of recommended books, but there are lots more.
BOOKS ABOUT PALESTINIANS AND ISRAELIS (MOSTLY FICTION):
Bishara, Amahl. *The Boy and the Wall *(picture book, illustrations by children in a Palestinian refugee camp, 2006). Available from www.middleeastbooks.com Cohen, Barbara. *The Secret Grove *(elementary. Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1985. Worth the effort to get a copy. DaCosta, Deborah. *Snow in Jerusalem. *(Albert Whitman, 2001) picture book Levine, Anna. *Running on Eggs (*Front Street/Cricket, 1999) Middle grades/YA novel Morris, Ann and Lilly Rivlin. *When Will the Fighting Stop? A child's View of Jerusalem *(Atheneum 1990), elementary Barakat, Ibtisam. *Tasting the Sky. (2007), *memoir Ghazy, Randa. *Dreaming of Palestine: A Novel of Friendship, Love, and War
*(George Braziller 2002). Written by a 15-year-old Egyptian girl living in Europe, this
is a powerful novel from the POV of desperate Palestinians, very very edgy Zenatti, Valerie. *A Bottle in the Gaza Sea *(Bloomsbury 2008) YA
Believe it or not, three of the best novels were written way back when no one gave a hoot about Palestinians. They'll be hard to find, but well worth the effort. Forman, James. *My Enemy, My Brother *(Scholastic 1969) YA Noble, Iris. *Mahmud's Story: The Journal of a Palestinian Refugee *(Julian Messner, 1976) YA Richard, Adrienne. *The Accomplice *(Little Brown 1973) YA
BOOKS ABOUT OTHER ARAB COUNTRIES (MOSTLY FICTION): Alalou, Elizabeth and Ali. *The Butter Man. *(Charlesbridge, 2008) picture book, Morocco Forman, James. *Call Back Yesterday *(Scribner's 1981) YA, a rather horrific hostage story, Saudi Arabia Heide, Florence Parry and Judith Heide Gilliland. *The Day of Ahmed's Secret (*Lothrop, etc., 1990), Picture book, Egypt
Heide and Gilliland, *Sami and the Time of the Troubles* (Clarion 1992), picture book, Lebanon war Kessler, Cristina. *One Night: A Story from the Desert *(Philomel 1995) picture book, North AFrica Laird, Elizabeth. *Oranges in No Man's Land* (Macmillan UK 2006) short novel, Lebanon war Lewin, Ted. *The Storytellers *(Lothrop, 1998), picture book, Morocco Lloyd, Norris. *The Village That Allah Forgot *(Hastings House 1973) short novel, Tunisia. Hard to find, but a wonderful book. Matthews, Mary. *Magid Fasts for Ramadan *(Clarion 1996). elementary, Egypt Matze, Claire Sidhom. *The Stars in My Geddoh's Sky *(Whitman 1999), picture book, Egyptian-Americans Rardin, Susan. *Captives in a Foreign Land *(Houghton Mifflin 1984) YA -- a good hostage story, unnamed North African setting Schami, Rafik. *A Hand Full of Stars *(Dutton 1990) YA, Syria Stamaty, Mark Alan. *Alia's Misson: Saving the Books of Iraq *(Knopf 2005), graphic, upper elementary, Iraq Winter, Jeanette. *The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq *(Harcourt 2005) picture book Cohen, Jared. *Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East *(Gotham/Penguin 2007) YA, nonfiction
MY OWN BOOKS: This has gone on enough, so I'll just invite you to my website: www.elsamarston.com. But I do want to tell you about my latest book, *Santa Claus in Baghdad--and Other Stories About Teens in the Arab World *(Indiana University Press 2008, available now). This is the only book I know of that includes a variety of Arab societies and settings--Baghdad, Egyptian village, Lebanon, Damascus, Tunisia, West Bank, Palestinian refugee camp, Jordan--and focuses on more or less universal life situations that young Americans can identify with: fitting in, finding a friend, dealing with divorce, reconciling one's own ambitions with parents' wishes, facing oppressive traditions, etc. I have first=hand acquaintance with all these places (though some of them a long time ago!) The book is a second edition of *Figs and Fate: Stories About Growing Up in the Arab World Today
*(Braziller 2005), but with three more stories and informative notes for each story. *Figs *was used in a good number of schools, middle and high, and even some college literature classes. A film (by an independent filmmaker) is being made of the "Santa Claus in Baghdad" story, and may be available by the end of this year. I hope!
I had an article in The Horn Book (Nov/Dec 2004) about Palestinians in children's literature. I hope you find something helpful in this. Please contact me if you have any questions. Thank you for letting me present my five cents worth.
Elsa Marston
Received on Tue 20 May 2008 05:31:17 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 17:31:17 -0500
Dear Megan and CCBC-net sbscribers--
As a brand new member of this listserve, I 'm still not sure of the standard operating procedures and didn't realize that there is a specified time limit for topics. And as children's literature about the Middle East has been my main concern for about 20 years, both as an author and a specialist, I do have something to say on the subject. I hope you'll allow me to squeeze in under the wire and add my bit on this topic. Sorry that I couldn't do it in a more timely way.
I concentrate on books and stories (fiction) from picture book to novel that focus on the present-day Middle East. The Arabian Nights and folk tales, etc., make charming picture books, but they don't tell a young American a thing about what's going on in the Arab/Muslim world in the 20th-21st century, and why it's important to understand something about real people in our own time. Many of the books mentioned by other CCBC-Net people (I may have overlooked some) are on my own list of recommended books, but there are lots more.
BOOKS ABOUT PALESTINIANS AND ISRAELIS (MOSTLY FICTION):
Bishara, Amahl. *The Boy and the Wall *(picture book, illustrations by children in a Palestinian refugee camp, 2006). Available from www.middleeastbooks.com Cohen, Barbara. *The Secret Grove *(elementary. Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1985. Worth the effort to get a copy. DaCosta, Deborah. *Snow in Jerusalem. *(Albert Whitman, 2001) picture book Levine, Anna. *Running on Eggs (*Front Street/Cricket, 1999) Middle grades/YA novel Morris, Ann and Lilly Rivlin. *When Will the Fighting Stop? A child's View of Jerusalem *(Atheneum 1990), elementary Barakat, Ibtisam. *Tasting the Sky. (2007), *memoir Ghazy, Randa. *Dreaming of Palestine: A Novel of Friendship, Love, and War
*(George Braziller 2002). Written by a 15-year-old Egyptian girl living in Europe, this
is a powerful novel from the POV of desperate Palestinians, very very edgy Zenatti, Valerie. *A Bottle in the Gaza Sea *(Bloomsbury 2008) YA
Believe it or not, three of the best novels were written way back when no one gave a hoot about Palestinians. They'll be hard to find, but well worth the effort. Forman, James. *My Enemy, My Brother *(Scholastic 1969) YA Noble, Iris. *Mahmud's Story: The Journal of a Palestinian Refugee *(Julian Messner, 1976) YA Richard, Adrienne. *The Accomplice *(Little Brown 1973) YA
BOOKS ABOUT OTHER ARAB COUNTRIES (MOSTLY FICTION): Alalou, Elizabeth and Ali. *The Butter Man. *(Charlesbridge, 2008) picture book, Morocco Forman, James. *Call Back Yesterday *(Scribner's 1981) YA, a rather horrific hostage story, Saudi Arabia Heide, Florence Parry and Judith Heide Gilliland. *The Day of Ahmed's Secret (*Lothrop, etc., 1990), Picture book, Egypt
Heide and Gilliland, *Sami and the Time of the Troubles* (Clarion 1992), picture book, Lebanon war Kessler, Cristina. *One Night: A Story from the Desert *(Philomel 1995) picture book, North AFrica Laird, Elizabeth. *Oranges in No Man's Land* (Macmillan UK 2006) short novel, Lebanon war Lewin, Ted. *The Storytellers *(Lothrop, 1998), picture book, Morocco Lloyd, Norris. *The Village That Allah Forgot *(Hastings House 1973) short novel, Tunisia. Hard to find, but a wonderful book. Matthews, Mary. *Magid Fasts for Ramadan *(Clarion 1996). elementary, Egypt Matze, Claire Sidhom. *The Stars in My Geddoh's Sky *(Whitman 1999), picture book, Egyptian-Americans Rardin, Susan. *Captives in a Foreign Land *(Houghton Mifflin 1984) YA -- a good hostage story, unnamed North African setting Schami, Rafik. *A Hand Full of Stars *(Dutton 1990) YA, Syria Stamaty, Mark Alan. *Alia's Misson: Saving the Books of Iraq *(Knopf 2005), graphic, upper elementary, Iraq Winter, Jeanette. *The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq *(Harcourt 2005) picture book Cohen, Jared. *Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East *(Gotham/Penguin 2007) YA, nonfiction
MY OWN BOOKS: This has gone on enough, so I'll just invite you to my website: www.elsamarston.com. But I do want to tell you about my latest book, *Santa Claus in Baghdad--and Other Stories About Teens in the Arab World *(Indiana University Press 2008, available now). This is the only book I know of that includes a variety of Arab societies and settings--Baghdad, Egyptian village, Lebanon, Damascus, Tunisia, West Bank, Palestinian refugee camp, Jordan--and focuses on more or less universal life situations that young Americans can identify with: fitting in, finding a friend, dealing with divorce, reconciling one's own ambitions with parents' wishes, facing oppressive traditions, etc. I have first=hand acquaintance with all these places (though some of them a long time ago!) The book is a second edition of *Figs and Fate: Stories About Growing Up in the Arab World Today
*(Braziller 2005), but with three more stories and informative notes for each story. *Figs *was used in a good number of schools, middle and high, and even some college literature classes. A film (by an independent filmmaker) is being made of the "Santa Claus in Baghdad" story, and may be available by the end of this year. I hope!
I had an article in The Horn Book (Nov/Dec 2004) about Palestinians in children's literature. I hope you find something helpful in this. Please contact me if you have any questions. Thank you for letting me present my five cents worth.
Elsa Marston
Received on Tue 20 May 2008 05:31:17 PM CDT
