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From: Russel Neiss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [ha-Safran]: Habibi
Amalia.
Find a number of reviews below:
Book Report
www.linworth.com "Is a Jew a Palestinian? Is a
Palestinian a Jew? Where does one begin to answer
such a question?" This query by Anndee Hochman,
one of several that preface this excellent novel,
encapsulates the difficult theme of the story.
Liyana Abboud, 14, is uprooted from her life in
St. Louis when her Palestinian father, a
physician, decides to return to Jerusalem where
he was born. The move is, naturally, a culture
shock for Liyana, her younger brother, and her
American-born mother. The history of Jerusalem
with its cross-section of cultures, the conflicts
between the Israelis and Palestinians, the
grandmother and extended family living on the
West Bank whom Liyana has never met--all these
contribute to the great upheaval in her life. She
attends an Armenian school, feeling uncertain and
unable to understand the languages around her She
has difficulty learning to deal with her
grandmother ("Sitti") and the culture of the
extended family She does not understand when
Israeli soldiers, looking for a relative
suspected of terrorism, invade Sitti's house and
destroy her bathroom. She is horrified when an
innocent friend is shot in the leg and her
father, after intervening, ends up spending the
night in jail. Yet she also meets and loves Omer,
a Jewish boy Her family's acceptance of him
encourages them both to believe peace is possible
between these two peoples. This book is an
outstanding look at what it is like to be a young
person in Palestine today It is rich in detail,
personalizes the complex tensions of the Middle
East, and leaves the reader with a sense of hope
for peaceful resolutions. An important book for
our collections. Highly Recommended. Rosemary
Knapp, Library Media Specialist, Camas
(Washington) High School � 1998 Linworth Publishing, Inc.
Booklist Reviews
Gr. 6^-10. What is it like to be young in
Palestine today? That is the focus of this
stirring docunovel, which breaks new ground in YA
fiction. Liyana Abboud, 14, moves with her family
from St. Louis to Jerusalem. For her physician
father, it is going home to where he was born and
educated. To Liyana, her younger brother, and her
American mother, it is a huge upheaval. At first
Liyana misses the U.S., can't speak the
languages, and feels uncertain at school, "tipped
between" the cultures. She is awkward with her
bossy grandmother ("Sitti") and overwhelmed by
her huge extended family when she visits their
village on the West Bank. The military occupation
is always there and the simmering conflict
between Jew and Arab. In one horrifying scene,
Israeli soldiers tear into Sitti's house and
smash her bathroom. In a climactic episode, after
a Palestinian bomb has injured civilians, the
Israelis shoot an innocent boy in the leg, and
Liyana's father is held in prison overnight. Yet
it doesn't have to be that way. Liyana meets and
loves a Jewish boy, and together they join the
Jews and Arabs trying to make peace.Nye is an
Arab American author and anthologist, and, as in
her fine essay collection, Never in a Hurry
(1996), she writes from a unique perspective, as
the American newcomer/observer and as the
displaced Palestinian in occupied territory. The
story is steeped in detail about the place and
cultures: food, geography, history, shopping,
schools, languages, religions, etc. Just when you
think it is obtrusive to have essays and journal
entries thrust into the story, you get caught up
in the ideas and the direct simplicity with which
Nye speaks. She does try to cover too much--no
book can tell the whole story of the Middle
East--but this is a story that makes us "look
both ways." ((Reviewed September 15, 1997)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews
Horn Book Magazine Reviews
www.hbook.com When Liyana Abboud is fourteen, her
father decides that the time is right to move the
family from St. Louis to his native Jerusalem;
before she knows it, Liyana is studying Arabic in
school and baking bread in a giant outdoor oven
with Sitti, her Arab grandmother. Inevitably,
Arab-Israeli tensions enter into the story:
Israeli soldiers ransack and destroy much of
Sitti's house one day, and later, Liyana's doctor
father is briefly arrested for trying to protect
a young Palestinian boy shot by soldiers.
Liyana's attraction to and eventual friendship
with a boy whom she is shocked to discover is
Jewish, not Arab, is believably rendered, as is
the unexpectedly warm welcome he ultimately
receives from Sitti. The message isn't preachy
and remains almost secondary to the story of
Liyana's search for her identity as she goes from
feeling homesick to feeling very much at home.
Habibi, or darling, is what Liyana's father calls
her and her younger brother; it is a soothing,
loving word, and Liyana gradually finds herself
comfortable "living in the land of Habibi," where
she is showered with love by her huge extended
family. The leisurely progression of the
narrative matches the slow and stately pace of
daily life in this ancient land, and the text's
poetic turns of phrase accurately reflect
Liyana's passion for words and language. j.m.b.
Copyright 1999 Horn Book Magazine Reviews
Publishers Weekly Reviews
www.cahners.com This soul-stirring novel about
the Abbouds, an Arab American family, puts faces
and names to the victims of violence and
persecution in Jerusalem today. Believing the
unstable situation in that conflict-ridden city
has improved, 14-year-old Liyana's family moves
from St. Louis, Mo., to her father's homeland.
However, from the moment the Abbouds are stopped
by Jewish customs agents at the airport, they
face racial prejudice and discord. Initially, Nye
(Never in a Hurry) focuses on the Abbouds'
handling of conflicting cultural norms between
American and Arab values as they settle into
their new home (e.g., Liyana's father, Poppy,
while forbidding her to wear "short" shorts,
reacts in anger toward a relative who asks for
Liyana's hand in marriage). Then Liyana tests her
family's alleged unprejudiced beliefs when she
befriends Omer, a Jewish boy. She wants to
introduce him to her father (who taught her,
"Does it make sense that any God would choose
some people and leave the others out?... God's
bigger than that!"), but finds she must first
remind him of his own words. Nye expertly
combines the Abbouds' gradual acceptance of Omer
with a number of heart-wrenching episodes of
persecution (by the different warring factions)
against her friends and family to convey the
extent to which the Arab-Israeli conflict
infiltrates every aspect of their lives. Nye's
climactic ending will leave readers pondering,
long after the last page is turned, why Arabs,
Jews, Greeks and Armenians can no longer live in
harmony the way they once did. Ages 10-up. (Oct.)
Copyright 1998 Publishers Weekly Reviews
School Library Journal Reviews
www.cahners.com An important first novel from a
distinguished anthologist and poet. When Liyana's
doctor father, a native Palestinian, decides to
move his contemporary Arab-American family back
to Jerusalem from St. Louis, 14-year-old Liyana
is unenthusiastic. Arriving in Jerusalem, the
girl and her family are gathered in by their
colorful, warmhearted Palestinian relatives and
immersed in a culture where only tourists wear
shorts and there is a prohibition against
boy/girl relationships. When Liyana falls in love
with Omer, a Jewish boy, she challenges family,
culture, and tradition, but her homesickness
fades. Constantly lurking in the background of
the novel is violence between Palestinian and
Jew. It builds from minor bureaucratic annoyances
and humiliations, to the surprisingly shocking
destruction of grandmother's bathroom by Israeli
soldiers, to a bomb set off in a Jewish
marketplace by Palestinians. It exacts a reprisal
in which Liyana's friend is shot and her father
jailed. Nye introduces readers to unforgettable
characters. The setting is both sensory and
tangible: from the grandmother's village to a
Bedouin camp. Above all, there is Jerusalem
itself, where ancient tensions seep out of cracks
and Liyana explores the streets practicing her
Arabic vocabulary. Though the story begins at a
leisurely pace, readers will be engaged by the
characters, the romance, and the foreshadowed
danger. Poetically imaged and leavened with
humor, the story renders layered and complex
history understandable through character and
incident. Habibi succeeds in making the hope for
peace compellingly personal and concrete...as
long as individual citizens like Liyana's
grandmother Sitti can say, "I never lost my peace
inside." Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial
Library, Greenwich, CT Copyright 1998 School Library Journal Reviews
Voice of Youth Advocates Reviews
Liyanna Abboud is fourteen when her parents
announce that the family is moving from St.
Louis, the only home Liyanna has ever known, to
Jerusalem, her father's birthplace. The Abbouds
are welcomed by her father's sprawling extended
Arabfamily in their West Bank village. New
family, country, languages, and customs do not
seem to faze Liyana nor her brother, Rafik, much.
It is the lack of peace and the lack of empathy
between the Jews and Arabs that are the main
sources of angst forLiyanna and her family and friends.
This story is told mainly from sensitive,
introspective Liyanna's point of view, with a few
disrupting shifts to those of her parents, Rafik,
and her grandmother. This shifting viewpoint is a
sign of the obtrusiveness of the author's agenda,
asthe question of just who has the "right" god is
pondered. Although this heavy-handed approach
might not be obvious to younger teens, a less
didactic tone and more well-rounded characters
would improve both the quality of the book and
the reader'sability to enjoy it. However,
glimpses of everyday life in a holy city and of
how Arabs live in present-day Israel provide an
interesting backdrop, and Liyana's vaguely
mystical Arab grandmother is simply charming.
Habibi is an Arabic wordmeaning "darling" and the
oft-used term of endearment Liyanna and Rafik's
parents use for their children. $MD Marcia Mann. Copyright 1998 Voya Reviews
L'shalom,
Russel M. Neiss
Librarian
Rodeph Sholom School - New York, NY
Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author
and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL)
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