*STARRED REVIEW Now older than his 43-year-old father was when he died in a 1977 terrorist attack, Omar Saif Ghobash writes his Letters to his two young sons as a matter of permanent record. As the United Arab Emirates' ambassador to Russia (Ghobash's father was Arab, his...
The unrelenting conflict between Palestine and Israel keeps the Middle East in the news. But for a fuller picture of the Palestinian and Palestinian-American experience than what the media can provide, here’s a starter reading list. For a list of recommended titles about Palestine for young, middle-grade,...
The unrelenting conflict between Palestine and Israel keeps the Middle East in the news. But for a fuller picture of the Palestinian and Palestinian American experience than what the media can provide, here's a starter reading list for young people. Stay tuned for our list of titles about...
On September 11, 2001, 9-year-old Amani Al-Khatahtbeh should have been enjoying Yearbook Day at her New Jersey elementary school. Instead, “[t]hat day has become crystallized in my memory,” Al-Kahatahtbeh writes – and narrates, “not just for how harrowingly scary it [was] – how we didn’t...
This is the first in a two-part series of recommended books for youth about the refugee experience. For a list of middle grade and YA titles, click here. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), also known as the United Nations Refugee Agency,...
*STARRED REVIEW In a dual narrative, Leila Aboulela (Minaret; Lyrics Alley), winner of the inaugural Caine Prize for African Writing, exposes the impossibility of definitively taking sides. In 2010 Scotland, the global war on terror pixilates the lives of history professor Natasha, her student Oz, and...
Beloved NPR host Diane Rehm’s latest memoir begins with her husband John's end – depleted by Parkinson's disease, unable to "stand walk, eat, bathe, or in any way care for himself on his own, he was now ready to die." After 54 years of marriage –...
"I believe that art is an essential element of revolution," Leila Abdelrazaq begins her "Artist Statement" on her website. She's half Palestinian and half American activist based in Chicago with a 2015 DePaul University degree who has generations of stories to share. Her Baddawi began as a webcomic "...
Here's a narrative I haven't seen often: a not-yet-an-immigration story. Young Aref has one more week left to spend in his idyllic home in Muscat, the capital city of his native Oman. In too-few days, he and his mother will fly to the other side of the...
By various lunar predictions, tonight should be the last night of Ramadan. Eid Mubarak! In spite of all the good intentions expected of this holy month, world events haven't exactly played out quite that way, which only makes the first line of the preface here that...
Hapa Jordanian American Diana Abu-Jaber established herself with her first three titles – novels Arabian Jazz and Crescent, and memoir The Language of Baklava – as a lauded, award-winning Arab American literary voice. She leaves her own origins off the page in this chilling psychological thriller – her first, but most likely not her last....
Here's a common occurrence at our house: I can't go to bed without a book, which usually means I'm a constant barrage of 'Did you know that ...
After reading (and being bothered, aggravated, and ultimately haunted by the unlikely-to-ever-be-forgotten Nomad by Ayaan Hirsi Ali), I seem to be in search of sweeter literary anecdotes about the Muslim experience. As she did in her debut, The White Nights of Ramadan, Kuwaiti-born author Maha Addasi lovingly...
If the observations, memories, and pop culture references here weren't so obviously recognizable in our post-9/11 western world, you might have read this graphic memoir as a hack comedy. The black-and-white panels initially seem almost unfinished, as if still in rough-draft mode. The contents might...
A Muslim family prepares for the fasting holiday of the month of Ramadan. Noor and her two brothers especially look forward to Girgian, a three-day festival that marks the half-way point of the holy month....
A poetic first novel with some amazing images (“ … try to remember the wisdoms you unpacked that life scattered around your living room,” the author’s prologue begins) by an...
A toothsome tale set in L.A.'s richly diverse Arab American community, interspersing a love story about a hapa-Iraqi American chef who falls in love with
an exiled Iraqi professor. What a major relief to read something about...
A multicultural anthology of 37 short stories about immigration to and migration within the U.S., the so-called “Promised Land.” Contributing writers are of varied ethnic backgrounds, including Asian, African, Latino, Native American, Jewish, Middle...
