More like Where the Streets had a Name:
1. A Little Piece of Ground
Elizabeth Laird Gr.
6-8
Twelve-year-old Karim Aboudi and his family are trapped in
their Ramallah home by a strict curfew. In response to a Palestinian suicide
bombing, the Israeli military subjects the West Bank town to a virtual siege.
Meanwhile, Karim, trapped at home with his teenage brother and fearful parents,
longs to play football with his friends. When the curfew ends, he and his
friend discover an unused patch of ground that’s the perfect site for a
football pitch. Nearby, an old car hidden intact under bulldozed building makes
a brilliant den. But in this city there’s constant danger, even for schoolboys.
And when Israeli soldiers find Karim outside during the next curfew, it seems
impossible that he will survive.
2. Tasting the sky: A Palestinian Childhood
Ibtisam Barakat Gr.
7-12
In this groundbreaking memoir set in Ramallah during the
aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War, Ibtisam Barakat captures what it is like to
be a child whose world is shattered by war. With candor and courage, she
stitches together memories of her childhood: fear and confusion as bombs
explode near her home and she is separated from her family; the harshness of
life as a Palestinian refugee; her unexpected joy when she discovers Alef, the
first letter of the Arabic alphabet. This is the beginning of her passionate
connection to words, and as language becomes her refuge, allowing her to piece
together the fragments of her world, it becomes her true home.
3. Habibi Naomi
Shihab-Nye Gr.
6-8
Liyana Abboud, 14, and her family make a
tremendous adjustment when they move to Jerusalem from St. Louis. All she and
her younger brother, Rafik, know of their Palestinian father's culture come
from his reminiscences of growing up and the fighting they see on television.
In Jerusalem, she is the only ``outsider'' at an Armenian school; her easygoing
father, Poppy, finds himself having to remind her--often against his own common
sense--of rules for ``appropriate'' behavior; and snug shops replace
supermarket shopping--the malls of her upbringing are unheard of. Worst of all,
Poppy is jailed for getting in the middle of a dispute between Israeli soldiers
and a teenage refugee.
4. The Shepherd’s Granddaughter
Anne Laurel Carter Gr.
5-8
Palestinian teen Amani tends her extended
Muslim family's sheep alongside her beloved grandfather, Seedo, and helps tend
their vineyards and olive groves. When their quiet rural life is disturbed by
Israeli settlers encroaching on their land, Amani's uncle reacts with anger,
while her father tries to resist peacefully with the help of a sympathetic
rabbi. After Seedo dies, Amani has sole responsibility for the diminishing
flock and experiences physical threat and gunfire from the settlers as well as
friendship with their son, who just wants to return to New York. The tension
escalates until Amani's family compound is destroyed, and her father and uncle
are imprisoned.
5. Samir and Yonatan
Daniella
Carmi Gr.
5-9
Nothing could be more frightening to Samir, a Palestinian boy, than to be where
he is now: an Israeli hospital ward, trapped among the very people he blames
for his brother's death. Amid this explosive atmosphere, Samir begins to learn
about the Israeli kids around him. He discovers their hurts and conflicts - and
hesitantly begins to share his own.
6. A Stone in My
Hand Cathryn
Clinton
Gr. 6-8
In a Palestinian community in Gaza City during the intifada of 1988 and 1989,
11-year-old Malaak is traumatized, barely talking and immersed in a fantasy
life involving a tame bird. Malaak's father was killed five weeks earlier, as
he traveled to Israel looking for work. Contrary to their family's principles,
Malaak's older brother, Hamid, and his friend, Tariq (who saw his own father killed
by Israeli soldiers), secretly become shabab, or "youth activists,"
throwing stones at Israeli soldiers and even joining in terrorist activities.
Patiently counseled by her wise mother, visited in her dreams by her father,
and increasingly concerned about Hamid and Tariq, Malaak roots herself once
again in the difficult world around her.
7. Real Time
Pnina
Moed Kass Gr.
9-12
The tense story of a suicide bus bombing provides insight into life and death
in Israel today. This powerful novel is narrated in real time by many voices:
Sixteen-year-old Thomas, from Berlin, seeking answers to questions about his
grandfather, a Nazi officer in World War II. Vera from Odessa, reclaiming her
Jewish heritage. Baruch Ben Tov, a Holocaust survivor. Sameh Laham, illegally
employed at a diner. His boss. Sameh's friend Omar. A Palestinian doctor in an
Israeli hospital. A mother. A soldier. A newscaster. Minute by minute, hour by
hour, these lives and many others unfold--and then intersect in one violent
moment on a highway outside Jerusalem. Each is drastically and irrevocably
changed.
8. Freefall Anna
Levine Gr
7-10
Aggie has just graduated from high school and is in the limbo period before
being drafted into the Israeli army. Aggie wants many things: to join a combat
unit, achieve independence from her parents, tell her best friend's brother how
she really feels about him (and vice versa) and ultimately, to help others
during war time. The vivid descriptions of life in Israel and Aggie's inner
drive to join a combat unit provide unique insight into life in Israel today.
9. A Bottle in the
Gaza Sea Valerie
Zennatti Gr.
6-8
An Israeli teenager is distraught after a terrorist bombing in her
neighborhood. She writes a letter, which her brother tosses into the sea near
Gaza. Found by a young Palestinian, the short novel is told through emails the
two send back and forth as they argue, explain, and learn to understand one
another better.
10. 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East Naomi
Shihab Nye Gr. 6-8
Naomi Shihab Nye has been writing about being Arab-American,
about Jerusalem, about the West Bank, about family all her life. These new and
collected poems of the Middle East — sixty in all — appear together here for
the first time.
Other global conflict
stories
11. Burn my Heart Beverley
Naidoo Gr.
6-9
Mathew and Mugo, two boys—one white, one black—share an
uneasy friendship in Kenya in the 1950s. They're friends even though Mathew's
dad owns the land and everything on it. They're friends despite the difference
in their skin color. And they're friends in the face of the growing Mau Mau
rebellion, which threatens British settlers with violence as black Kenyans
struggle to win back their land and freedom. But suspicions and accusations are
escalating, and an act of betrayal could change everything.
12. Words in the Dust Trent
Reedy Gr.
6-8
Zulaikha hopes. She hopes for peace, now that the Taliban
have been driven from Afghanistan; a good relationship with her hard
stepmother; and one day even to go to school, or to have her cleft palate
fixed. Zulaikha knows all will be provided for her--"Inshallah," God
willing. Then she meets Meena, who offers to teach her the Afghan poetry she
taught her late mother. And the Americans come to her village, promising not
just new opportunities and dangers, but surgery to fix her face. These changes
could mean a whole new life for Zulaikha--but can she dare to hope they'll come
true?
13. No Ordinary Day Deborah
Ellis Gr.
4-7
Even though Valli spends her days picking coal and fighting
with her cousins, life in the coal town of Jharia, India, is the only life she
knows. The only sight that fills her with terror is the monsters who live on
the other side of the train tracks — the lepers. When Valli discovers that that
her “aunt” is a stranger who was paid money to take Valli off her own family’s
hands, she leaves Jharia and begins a series of adventures that takes her to
Kolkata, the city of the gods. Valli finds that she really doesn’t need much to
live and is very resourceful. But a chance encounter with a doctor reveals that
she has leprosy. Unable to bear the thought that she is one of the monsters she
has always feared, Valli rejects help and begins an uncertain life on the
street.
14. Under the Persimmon Tree Suzanne
Fisher Staples Gr.
8-10
Najmah, a young Afghan girl, suddenly finds herself alone
when her father and older brother are conscripted by the Taliban and her mother
and newborn brother are killed in an air raid. An American woman, Elaine, whose
Islamic name is Nusrat, is also on her own. She waits out the war in Peshawar,
Pakistan, teaching refugee children under the persimmon tree in her garden
while her Afghan doctor husband runs a clinic in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan.
Najmah’s father had always assured her that the stars would take care of her,
just as Nusrat’s husband had promised that they would tell Nusrat where he was
and that he was safe. As the two look to the skies for answers, their fates
entwine. Najmah, seeking refuge and hoping to find her father and brother,
begins the perilous journey through the mountains to cross the border into
Pakistan. And Nusrat’s persimmon-tree school awaits Najmah’s arrival. Together,
they both seek their way home.
15. The Queen of Water Laura
Resau Gr.
8-12
Born in an Andean village in Ecuador, Virginia lives with
her large family in a small, earthen-walled dwelling. In her village of
indígenas, it is not uncommon to work in the fields all day, even as a child,
or to be called a longa tonta—stupid Indian—by members of the ruling class of
mestizos, or Spanish descendants. When seven-year-old Virginia is sold by her
parents to be a servant to a mestizo couple, she has no idea what the future
holds. In her new home, the wife beats her, and the husband gropes her. Still,
she teaches herself to read and write and begins to perform science experiments
in secret. Then, when she is 12, she finally gets a chance to return to her
parents: But does she want to? And do they want her?
16. Now is the Time for Running Michael
Williams Gr.
7-9
Just down the road from their families, Deo and his friends
play soccer in the dusty fields of Zimbabwe, cheered on by Deo's older brother,
Innocent. It is a day like any other . . . until the soldiers arrive and Deo
and Innocent are forced to run for their lives, fleeing the wreckage of their
village for the distant promise of safe haven. Along the way, they face the
prejudice and poverty that await refugees everywhere, and must rely on the
kindness of people they meet to make it through. But when tragedy strikes,
Deo's love of soccer is all he has left. Can he use that gift to find hope once
more?
17. Bamboo People Mitali
Perkins Gr
6-9
This coming-of-age story is narrated by two
fourteen-year-old boys on opposing sides of the conflict between the Burmese
government and the Karenni, one of the many ethnic minorities in Burma. Chiko,
a studious Burmese youth, has been seized by the government for his liberal
views and is conscripted into the Burmese army. Tu Reh, a Karenni boy whose home
and bamboo fields are destroyed by the Burmese soldiers, is eager to fight for
his people. When Chiko and Tu Reh meet, a close friendship is forged,
demonstrating their courage to overcome violence and prejudice.
18. A Million Shades of Gray Cynthia
Kadohata Gr.
6-10
Tin is known throughout his Vietnam village as being brave,
possessing the calm and courage needed to expertly train wild elephants. But
when American troops—who Tin’s tribe, the Dega, have been helping—pull out of
the Vietnam War and his village is occupied by Viet Cong forces seeking
revenge, twelve-year-old Tin watches his life change in a million terrible
ways. His bravery is put to a new test: He must choose between staying captive
or saving his elephant’s life by fleeing into the dangerous depths of the
jungle.
19. Zlata’s
Diary Zlata
Filipovic Gr.
6-8
Zlata Filipovic’ began her diary just months before her eleventh birthday in
1991. Peace still reigned in her hometown of Sarajevo, where she lived the
carefree life of an innocent schoolgirl. But this life was suddenly shattered
in 1992 when gunfire shook through the hills, and the streets of Sarajevo
became the barbaric battlegrounds of the Bosnian war.
20. When my Name was Keoko Linda
Sue Park Gr.
6-8
1940: Sun-hee and her older brother Tae-yul live in Korea,
which is under Japanese rule. Korean customs and traditions are forbidden by
law. As the family struggles under these conditions, World War II comes to the
region, and with it the life-and-death decisions of wartime.
