Review Source: Independent
Book Author: Naomi Shihab Nye
An educator wrote:
While I love Naomi Shihab Nye’s 1997 book Habibi, it may be helpful to add a disclaimer that it uses the ‘Jews and Arabs’ formula. Also, although the storyline begins to explore ways in which the Oslo Accords did not live up to the initially high hopes of the mid-’90s characters, teachers may wish to give 2024 updates to students, e.g. that current life under occupation is much more restricted than what is presented in the book.
Find more recommended books and other resources on this topic on our Palestine booklist.
Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye
Published by Simon and Schuster on June 30, 2008
Genres: Arabic, Palestine
Pages: 272
Reading Level: Grades 6-8
ISBN: 9781439115190
Review Source: Independent
Also by this author: Sitti's Secrets
Publisher's Synopsis: Fourteen-year-old Liyana Abboud would rather not have to change her life . . . especially now that she has been kissed, for the very first time and quite by surprise, by a boy named Jackson.
But when her parents announce that Liyana's family is moving from St. Louis, Missouri, to Jerusalem — to the land where her father was born — Liyana's whole world shifts.
What does Jerusalem hold for Liyana? A grandmother, a Sitti, she has never met, for one. A history much bigger than she is. Visits to the West Bank village where her aunts and uncles live. Mischief. Old stone streets that wind through time and trouble. Opening doors, dark jail cells, a new feeling for peace, and Omer . . . the intriguing stranger whose kisses replace the one she lost when she moved across the ocean.
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