Middle East

Lost and Found Cat

When an Iraqi family is forced to flee their home, they can’t bear to leave their beloved cat, Kunkush, behind. So they carry him with them from Iraq to Greece, keeping their secret passenger hidden away. But during the crowded boat crossing to Greece, his carrier breaks and the frightened cat runs from the chaos. In one moment, he is gone. After an unsuccessful search, his family has to continue their journey, leaving brokenhearted. A few days later, aid workers in Greece find the lost cat. Knowing how much his family has sacrificed already, they are desperate to reunite them with the cat they love so much. A worldwide community comes together to spread the word on the Internet and in the news media, and after several months the impossible happens—Kunkush’s family is found, and they finally get their happy ending in their new home.

Featured in WOW Review Volume XIII, Issue 3.

Move Faster Pigeons

Azadeh is anxiously waiting for the time when she can go to school and play with the other children. Her father says that soon she can go, when the clock strikes seven. It seems to Azadeh that the two pigeons in the clock make the hands move by pulling on the bar they’re connected to. The pigeons look tired, but Azadeh wishes for the pigeons to move faster so she can go to school. She discovers that one of the pigeons has a broken wing and it cannot work properly.

The Journey

With haunting echoes of the current refugee crisis this beautifully illustrated book explores the unimaginable decisions made as a family leave their home and everything they know to escape the turmoil and tragedy brought by war.

Featured in WOW Review Volume IX, Issue 4.

Stepping Stones

Stepping Stones tells the story of Rama and her family, who are forced to flee their once-peaceful village to escape the ravages of the civil war raging ever closer to their home. With only what they can carry on their backs, Rama and her mother, father, grandfather and brother, Sami, set out to walk to freedom in Europe.

Featured in WOW Review Volume IX, Issue 3.

Stepping Stones is a WOW Recommends: Book of the Month for July 2017.

Balcony On The Moon

Balcony on the Moon follows Ibtisam Barakat through her childhood and adolescence in Palestine from 1972-1981 and chronicles her desire to be a writer.

Baddawi

Baddawi is the story of a young boy named Ahmad struggling to find his place in the world. It explores the childhood of the author’s father from a determinedly boy’s-eye view. Ahmed was raised in the refugee camp of Baddawi in northern Lebanon, one of many thousands of children born to Palestinians who fled (or were expelled from) their homeland during the 1948 war that established the state of Israel. Ahmad’s dogged pursuit of education and opportunity echoes the journey of the Palestinian people, as they make the best of their existing circumstances while remaining determined to one day return to their homeland.

Featured in WOW Review Volume IX, Issue 1.

It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel

Zomorod (Cindy) Yousefzadeh is the new kid on the block. It’s the late 1970s, and fitting in becomes more difficult as Iran makes U.S. headlines with protests, revolution, and finally the taking of American hostages. Nothing can distract Cindy from the anti-Iran sentiments that creep way too close to home.

Dare To Disappoint

As a child in Izmir, Turkey in the 1980 and 90s, Ozge Samanci watched as her country struggled between its traditional religious heritage and the new secular westernized world of brand-name products and television stars. In Ozge’s own family, she struggled to figure out the place where she belonged, too. Her older sister was a perfect student, and her dad hoped Ozge would study hard, go to good schools, and become an engineer to find stability in their country’s uncertain economic climate. But Ozge was a dreamer and wanted adventure. Could she be a scuba diver like Jacques Costeau? Or should she become a world-famous actress? This touching memoir shows how Ozge dared to overcome both her family and her country’s expectations to find happiness by being an artist.