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.
Middle East
Shadow Spinner
When Marjan, a thirteen-year-old girl with a disability, joins the Sultan’s harem in ancient Persia, she gathers for Shahrazad the stories which will save the queen’s life.
Lydia, Queen Of Palestine
Ten-year-old Lydia describes her childhood escapades in pre-World War II Romania, her struggles to understand her parents’ divorce amid the chaos of the war, and her life on a kibbutz in Palestine. Based on the life of the Israeli poet Arianna Haran.
19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East
Nineteen poems about the Middle East and about being an Arab American living in the United States.
Samir And Yonatan
Samir, a Palestinian boy, is sent for surgery to an Israeli hospital where he has two otherworldly experiences, making friends with an Israeli boy, Yonatan, and traveling with him to Mars.
Habibi
When fourteen-year-old Liyanne Abboud and her family move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the Palestinian village where her father was born, they face many changes and the tensions between Jews and Palestinians.
Featured in WOW Review Volume XII, Issue 1
Syria
As part of the series Cultures of the World, this title covers the geography, history, government, economy, environment, peoples, arts, cultures and languages of the country of Syria.
If You Could Be My Friend: Letters Of Mervet Akram Sha’ban and Galit Fink
Contains the correspondence between two girls, one Israeli and the other Palestinian, from 1988 until their meeting in 1991 and includes a brief history of their two peoples. First translated by Ariane Elbaz (Hebr.) and Beatrice Khadige (Arab.).
A Little Piece Of Ground
During the Israeli occupation of Ramallah in the West Bank of Palestine, twelve-year-old Karim and his friends create a secret place for themselves where they can momentarily forget the horrors of war. Also written by Sonia Nimr.