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PICTURE BOOKS
Elbayya, Hazar

My Olive Tree

40 pp. | Random/Schwartz | September, 2024 | Trade ISBN 9780593810224 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 9780593810248 $10.99
(3) K-3 Sido (grandfather) tells Salam, a young Palestinian girl, that olive trees are strong and resilient with “roots that run deep in this land.” He explains that olive trees connect everyone, from the farmer who presses the oil, to the bakery where the oil fires up the ovens, to olive sellers, to those who feast on them. An excited Salam plants an olive seed with dreams of strengthening these connections. She tends to her seed every day until it sprouts and grows into a young tree. Her happiness is cut short, however, when “soldiers forcefully march into our land,” crushing her tree and destroying everything in their path. Sido comforts Salam by saying she will grow more trees in time. Overnight, Sido mobilizes the community so that when Salam awakes, she finds her friends and family gathered amid a newly planted olive grove. Elbayya’s spare text and simple line drawings in a muted palette of greens and browns are powerful and effective. Salam (which means peace) serves as a stand-in for the resilience and unbroken spirit of the Palestinian people. The hopeful story underlines lessons of resistance and the coming together of community in the face of destruction.
Reviewer: Sadaf Siddique

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