Theme: Middle East

Count Your Way through the Arab World

By Kathy G. Short | Published: March 14, 2007

Uses Arabic numerals from one to ten to introduce concepts about Arab countries and Arab culture.

Descriptors: Egypt, Nonfiction, Primary (ages 6-9) » Other Themes: , » Comments closed

The Treasures of Trinkamalee

By Kathy G. Short | Published: March 14, 2007

With the background of The Arabian Nights, this book deals with themes of young men’s folly, greed, adventure, crime and punishment. An old man narrates how years earlier he and friends set out to see the world and to find riches to bring home.

Descriptors: Fiction, Primary (ages 6-9), Saudi Arabia » Other Themes: , » Comments closed

The Key to My Heart

By Kathy G. Short | Published: March 14, 2007

After Jonathan’s dad loses his keys, they retrace all of their steps throughout the day, from the post office to the playground, and all of the places in between.

Descriptors: Fiction, Israel, Primary (ages 6-9) » Other Themes: , , » Comments closed

The Deliverance of Dancing Bears

By Kathy G. Short | Published: March 14, 2007

A poor man spends all his money to free two mistreated dancing bears, and in doing so reminds the onlookers that the dignity of all living creatures must be respected.

Descriptors: Fiction, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Turkey » Other Themes: , , , , » Comments closed

The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq

By Kathy G. Short | Published: March 14, 2007

When war comes, Alia Muhammad Baker, the librarian of Basra, fears the library will be destroyed, so she asks government officials for help, but they refuse, which means Alia must take matters into her own hands to protect the books that she loves.

Descriptors: Biography, Iraq, Primary (ages 6-9) » Other Themes: » 2 Comments

Iblis

By Kathy G. Short | Published: March 14, 2007

An Islamic version of the story of Adam and Eve and the fall from Paradise. In this Islamic version of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden, the devil is called Iblis.

Descriptors: Folklore, Iraq, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9) » Other Themes: , , , , , , , , » Comments closed

One Night: A Story from the Desert

By Kathy G. Short | Published: March 14, 2007

Muhamad, a young Tuareg boy, sets out to prove himself by caring for his father’s goats alone overnight in the desert and finds his night enlived by a pregnant goat about to give birth, in a poetic look at the lives of the Tuareg people of the Sudan.

Descriptors: Africa, Niger, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic Fiction » Other Themes: , , , , , , , , , » Comments closed

Traveling Man: The Journey of Ibn Battuta

By Kathy G. Short | Published: March 14, 2007

Relates the adventures of Ibn Battuta, a fourteenth-century traveler who, like Marco Polo, set forth on a seventy-five-thousand-mile journey of discovery through many lands, including Tanzania, China, Russia, and Morocco.

Descriptors: Biography, Morocco, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9) » Other Themes: , , , , , , , , » Comments closed

The Roses in My Carpets

By Kathy G. Short | Published: March 14, 2007

When a young boy and his mother and sister come to a refugee camp to escape the war in Afghanistan, he finds some comfort in the beauty of the carpets he is learning weave.

Descriptors: Afghanistan, Asia, Fiction, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9) » Other Themes: , , , , , , , , , » 2 Comments

Temple Cat

By Kathy G. Short | Published: March 14, 2007

A temple cat in ancient Egypt grows tired of being worshipped and cared for in a reverent fashion and travels to the seaside, where she finds genuine affection with a fisherman and his children.

Descriptors: Africa, Egypt, Fiction, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9) » Other Themes: , , , , , , » Comments closed