Provides an overiew of the history and origins, basic tenets and beliefs, organization, traditions, customs, rites, societal influences, and modern-day impact of Islam.
Middle East
How Many Donkeys?: An Arabic Counting Tale
Jouha is loading his donkeys with dates to sell at the market. How many donkeys are there? His son helps him count ten, but once the journey starts, things change. First there are ten donkeys, then there are nine! When Jouha stops to count again, the lost donkey is back. What’s going on? Silly Jouha doesn’t get it, but by the end of the story, wise readers will be counting correctly – and in Arabic.
The Shepherd’s Granddaughter
Amani longs to be a shepherd like her beloved grandfather Sido, who has tended his flock for generations, grazing sheep on their family’s homestead near Hebron. Amani loves Sido’s many stories, especially one about a secret meadow called the Firdoos. But as outside forces begin to encroach upon this hotly contested land, Amani struggles to find suitable grazing for her family’s now-starving herd. While her father and brother take a more militant stance against the intruding forces, Amani and her new American friend Jonathan accidentally stumble upon the Firdoos and begin to realize there is more to life than fighting over these disputed regions. Amani learns a difficult lesson about just what it will take to live in harmony with those who threaten her family’s way of life.
Take a closer look at The Shepherd’s Granddaughter as examined in WOW Review.
Come and Play: Children of Our World Having Fun
Come and Play features 32 photographs of children from everywhere. China, Japan, Greece, Wales, Morocco, Oman, Texas, New York, and many more. Each photo is beautiful, thought provoking, and accompanied by lines of children’s poetry that will amuse young readers, and cause adult readers to reflect and laugh as they see the images through children’s eyes. The photographs span the last fifty years; while the children who wrote about them are a diverse group between the ages of 5 and 11.
The Boy from over There
Avramik, a young Holocaust survivor, has difficulties adjusting to life on a kibbutz in the days before the first Arab-Israeli War.
The Singing Mountain
When sixteen-year-old Carlie learns that her older cousin Mitch is staying in Israel to study at an Orthodox yeshiva, she is upset and angry. Since she was orphaned years ago, Carlie and Mitch have lived together like brother and sister. In Israel Mitch finds fulfillment in studying the Torah, in his work as an artist, and in his new relationship with an Israeli girl.
In California, Carlie, her aunt Vivian and uncle Harry grow increasingly alarmed at Mitch’s defection. They fear he has been brainwashed. Aunt Vivian decides to take Carlie to Israel to lure Mitch back home. Once there, Carlie is awakened by Mitch’s new spirituality. After surviving a traumatic incident she realizes that she has a strength of her own. Finally, Carlie holds the key to the changing paths that each of them will take.
I Is Someone Else
It is 1966, and the times, they are a-changin’. Fifteen-year-old Stephen is on his way to a summer program in France when he meets two glamorous new friends of his older brother, Rob, who has been missing for 18 months. They persuade Stephen to travel to Istanbul with them, to find his brother. And what a world opens up to him: a world of beautiful girls, drug busts, fascinating cultures, fast-moving friendships, and betrayals. As he travels further into Asia, the nature of Stephen’s journey changes: The search for his brother is replaced by an inner exploration, in which he must confront his own past, and his own dark secret.
Ali and the Golden Eagle
Wayne captures a baby golden eagle for his friend Ali, a young shepherd boy from the village of Ezratu, and Ali trains the eagle to hunt. The eagle alters the destiny of Ali and all of Ezratu.
Thank You, World
Eight very different kids, from eight different continents, all go about their day and experience the same moments of happiness: greeting the sun in the morning, swinging on a swing, flying a kite, being tucked in by Mommy at bedtime.
Seven Daughters and Seven Sons
In an ancient Arab nation, one woman dares to be different. Buran cannot — Buran will not-sit quietly at home and wait to be married to the man her father chooses. Determined to use her skills and earn a fortune, she instead disguises herself as a boy and travels by camel caravan to a distant city. There, she maintains her masculine disguise and establishes a successful business. The city’s crown prince comes often to her shop, and soon Buran finds herself falling in love. But if she reveals to Mahmud that she is a woman, she will lose everything she has worked for.