ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
PICTURE BOOKS
Suleiman, Safa

Hilwa's Gifts

40 pp. | Candlewick | February, 2025 | Trade ISBN 9781536229424 $18.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan. Ali visits his grandparents in Palestine, where they grow olive trees on their land. Ali and his seedo (grandfather) have a close bond; Seedo twirls Ali in the air and gives piggyback rides. It’s olive harvesting season, and they visit one particular tree named Hilwa (“sweet one”) that Seedo planted with his grandfather. Ali’s sitty (grandmother) whacks the branches of trees with a stick to harvest the olives, a method that has been passed down through generations. Olive-gathering is a festive affair: Ali’s cousins collect them in baskets while singing “zaytoon, ya zaytoon” (“olives, oh olives”) and dancing. When Ali and Seedo go to the olive press, Seedo explains that olives are one of Hilwa’s many gifts. Hilwa’s last gift is a cutting that Ali plants upon returning home, while Seedo and Sitty watch via video call. Digitally rendered illustrations authentically represent an idyllic Palestinian home and landscape, but the trees and loving extended family remain the focal points. A gentle story about intergenerational bonds and the significance of olive trees to Palestinians as both sustenance and a metaphor representing closeness to the land. An author’s note explains the basis for the story in a childhood memory; a glossary of Arabic words is also appended.
Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2025

RELATED 

PICTURE BOOKS

Born Ready
by Patterson, Jodie
PICTURE BOOKS

The House of Grass and Sky
by Ray, Mary Lyn
PICTURE BOOKS

The Dog's Gardener
by Storms, Patricia
PICTURE BOOKS

And I Paint It
by Kephart, Beth
PICTURE BOOKS

Poem in My Pocket
by Tougas, Chris
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?