This absorbing story compassionately tackles challenging subjects: the immigrant experience, explicit racism, family strife, and the enormity of Palestinian Israeli history. Feldman offers an ultimately optimistic message of hope and a chance for peace in ways both big and small. — Booklist
Many readers will see themselves in Feldman’s debut novel. This valuable title explores an issue rarely discussed in contemporary children’s literature. Highly recommended for middle grade collections. — School Library Journal
01/01/2022
Gr 5 Up—The Isreali-Palestinian conflict takes center stage in this middle grade novel. Yasmeen Khoury, an Arab American girl living in Detroit, Michigan, is devastated to hear she and her family will be moving to Texas. Yasmeen is used to her life in Michigan where there are many Arab American families; she has a lot of concerns about her new home, but her biggest worry is fitting in at school. As she feared, Yasmeen feels different and out of place in most of her classes, but she is soon invited to an after-school club called Math Lab. While she is excited about the club, she is worried her parents won't allow her to join: the coach of the club is Mr. Cohen, the father of the Israeli family across the street. Meanwhile, Yasmeen's dad watches the conflict growing worse in Israel, and Yasmeen is finding a new friend in Mr. Cohen's daughter, Ayelet. Can Yasmeen's family and the Cohens get along? Many readers will see themselves in Feldman's debut novel. Yasmeen's thoughts and actions feel authentic, and the friendship between her and Ayelet unfolds hesitantly, as would be expected. The information, thoughts, and feelings relating to the conflict are expertly done, especially for upper elementary readers. At times the plot feels a bit long, as it covers Yasmeen's entire first year in Texas, but readers will likely enjoy her journey. VERDICT This valuable title explores an issue rarely discussed in contemporary children's literature. Highly recommended for middle grade collections.—Lisa Buffi
2021-11-16
Twelve-year-old Yasmeen Khoury doesn’t want to leave Detroit for San Antonio, Texas.
However, her father’s new job means the whole family is driving across the country to a new home in the suburbs, where all the houses look the same. The daughter of Christian parents—a Palestinian father and Lebanese mother—Yasmeen is no longer surrounded by an Arab community and faces bullying and racist name-calling at school. Meanwhile, Yasmeen’s Baba’s family is losing their home to Israeli expansion in Jerusalem. The Cohens, the Khourys’ new neighbors, are a Jewish Israeli family; Ayelet Cohen is in seventh grade with Yasmeen, and Mr. Cohen is coach of the after-school math club Yasmeen joins. This work, informed by the author’s own life and experiences, tackles many themes around identity, including the histories of Israel and Palestine, anti-Arab racism in the American South, and growing up in immigrant families that are deeply affected by events back home. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is presented as a dispute between two sides who have been equally wronged, and as Yasmeen and Ayelet find themselves trying to make sense of long-standing intergenerational pain symbolized as conflict between their fathers, the book delves into the history of the region, sometimes through intrusive infodumps. Mr. Cohen is portrayed as conciliatory and reasonable; by contrast, Yasmeen’s Baba is shown as explosively angry.
An ambitious novel about home and belonging that longs for more nuance. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)
This absorbing story compassionately tackles challenging subjects: the immigrant experience, explicit racism, family strife, and the enormity of Palestinian Israeli history. Feldman offers an ultimately optimistic message of hope and a chance for peace in ways both big and small.
This absorbing story compassionately tackles challenging subjects: the immigrant experience, explicit racism, family strife, and the enormity of Palestinian Israeli history. Feldman offers an ultimately optimistic message of hope and a chance for peace in ways both big and small.
Narrator Ariana Delawari excels at catching the ups and downs of 12-year-old Yasmeen Khoury, who unwillingly leaves Detroit to move with her parents to San Antonio. Having been embraced by an Arab-American community in Michigan, Yasmeen faces a Texas suburban community in which all the houses and most of the people look the same. Delawari’s narration runs an emotional gamut: joy at finding a first friend, shame and confusion at being bullied by mean girls; triumphing in math class; and floundering in a dance group. Yasmeen also feels the confusion and frustration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a faraway crisis that is brought close to home in this story. Delawari’s portrayal of Yasmeen captures what it means to own your heritage while also finding a place to belong. S.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Narrator Ariana Delawari excels at catching the ups and downs of 12-year-old Yasmeen Khoury, who unwillingly leaves Detroit to move with her parents to San Antonio. Having been embraced by an Arab-American community in Michigan, Yasmeen faces a Texas suburban community in which all the houses and most of the people look the same. Delawari’s narration runs an emotional gamut: joy at finding a first friend, shame and confusion at being bullied by mean girls; triumphing in math class; and floundering in a dance group. Yasmeen also feels the confusion and frustration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a faraway crisis that is brought close to home in this story. Delawari’s portrayal of Yasmeen captures what it means to own your heritage while also finding a place to belong. S.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
