Turkey

Materials from Turkey

T Is for Turkey

With a history going back 4,000 years, Turkey has been the homeland to many civilizations — Greeks, Romans, Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, and Hittites — each of whom has left their cultural, social, and religious marks. Turkey also has some of the best cuisine in the world. Each region offers its own specialties, and the Turkish people have a well-deserved reputation for hospitality. Divided by the Bosphorus strait and bordered by the Aegean Sea, The Black Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, Turkey bridges the two great continents of Europe and Asia. Its varied terrain is rich in Roman ruins, mosques, and Greek and Armenian churches, and due to its geographical position, while some Turks are skiing in Erratum, others are swimming in Natalya.

Nabeel’s New Pants: An Eid Tale

Ramadan has come to an end. the fast is over, and tomorrow the celebration of Eid will begin. Nabeel decides to buy each of his family members something special to wear for the holiday. But while he’s choosing, the shopkeeper persuades him also to buy a gift for himself–a pair of new pants that are too long! Nabeel asks his wife to help hem them, but she’s too busy cooking biryana. He asks his mother and his daughter, too, but no one has the time; everyone is too busy preparing for the festivities.

The Hungry Coat

After being forced to change to a fancy new coat to attend a party, Nasrettin Hoca tries to feed his dinner to the coat, reasoning that it was the coat that was the invited guest.

Daughter of War

ALA Best Books for Young Adults 2009 nominee On the 2009 USBBY list of Outstanding International Books White Pine nominee, 2009 On Resource Link’s “Best of 2008” List Teenagers Kevork and his betrothed Marta are the lucky ones. They have managed so far to survive the Armenian genocide in Turkey, and both are disguised as Muslims. But Marta is still in Turkey, pregnant with another man’s child. And Kevork is living as an Arab in Syria.Kevork yearns to get back into Turkey and search for Marta, but with the war raging and the genocide still in progress, the journey will be impossibly dangerous. Meanwhile, Marta worries that even if Kevork has survived and they are reunited, will he be able to accept what she has become? And what has happened to her sister, Mariam, who was sold as a slave to the highest bidder?Daughter of War is a gripping story of enduring love and loyalty set against the horrors of Turkey during World War I.

Against the Storm

When Mehmet and his family leave their small Turkish village to seek a better life in Ankara, they find themselves living in poverty, but an encounter with a streetwise orphan and his own determination give Mehmet the courage to find a way out.

Rumi: Whirling Dervish

Born in Afghanistan in the thirteenth century, Rumi settled in Turkey and became a great mystical poet. Although he began his adult life as a highly respected scholar, he found his true calling after being mentored by a holy man, Shamsuddin. From “Shams,” he learned to listen for the sacred sound of God within himself. When his creative spirit was awakened, he recited more than 50,000 rhymed couplets. He also wrote about the love that resides in the soul of everyone regardless of religion or background. He founded the order of the whirling dervishes who believed their spinning dances put them in touch with God and brought peace and love into the world. Although Rumi died 800 years ago, his poems are more widely read now than ever before. To honor the 800th anniversary of his birth, the United Nations declared 2007 The Year of Mawlana Jalaladdin Rumi.

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.

Parade of Shadows

In 1907, sixteen-year-old Julia Hamilton, happy to accompany her diplomat father on a tour of the Ottoman-controlled cities of Istambul, Damascus, Palmyra, and Aleppo, soon finds the journey increasingly hazardous as she begins to uncover her father’s true mission and the secret motivations of the other travelers in their group.

The Frozen Waterfall

When she finally joins her father and brothers in their new home in Switzerland, a twelve-year-old Turkish girl encounters the tremendous difficulty of living in a foreign country without knowing the language and customs.