(3) YA The authors visited schools and community centers, interviewing young Palestinians about their lives under Israeli occupation. Children, teens, and twenty-somethings speak candidly about daily life; interests; and difficulties of living with checkpoints, security walls, and poor living conditions. Some context about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is provided, but this book concentrates on the Palestinian point of view. Small color photographs appear throughout. Reading list, timeline, websites.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(2) YA In this follow-up to Tasting the Sky, Barakat leads readers through her adolescent years in the West Bank. Although Israeli-Palestinian relations form an inescapable part of life in Ramallah, Barakat presents war from a young person's perspective, focusing on concrete details rather than the larger political conflict. The present-tense narration is jarring at first but allows for vivid, immediate prose. Reading list, websites.

Reviewer: Sarah Rettger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2016

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Ibrahim Quraishi. Hurry, an affectionate donkey, lives in a "dry and lonely land by the sea"--occupied Gaza, according to an author's note at book's end. To cheer the local children, a zookeeper paints stripes on Hurry so that he resembles a zebra. Based on a true event, the tale is heart-yanking and uplifting; if only the every-media-imaginable illustrations were more inviting.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) 4-6 Secret History series. From propaganda and intelligence to technology and sacrifice, various ways in which conflicts or wars are won, lost, or negotiated are examined in these books. Archival photographs combine with a busy but well-organized design to present an engaging perspective on these efforts. Both reluctant readers and history buffs in need of a fresh approach to events will appreciate this series. Reading list, timeline, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Secret History titles: Conflict in the Middle East and The Iraq War.

Reviewer: Tamara DePasquale

(2) 4-6 Hayaat's Muslim family lives in a small apartment in Israeli-occupied Bethlehem. When her grandmother, Sitti Zeynab, falls ill, Hayaat embarks on a mission to bring back a jar of earth from her homeland. The long journey to Jerusalem through numerous checkpoints is vividly depicted, along with the trials of occupation and the extreme fortitude of the people living under it.

Reviewer: Lauren Adams | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2011

(2) YA With customary zeal, Aronson speaks his mind on virtually every issue of Israeli-Palestinian relations. Throughout, he draws American parallels; some are a stretch, but most, however shaky, are thought-provoking. What he knows from experience, and airs, forthrightly, is what American and Israeli Jews of like mind think and, in closing, how American Jewish teens might help to heal the rift. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Barbara Bader | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2009

(3) YA Amani wants nothing more than to carry on her grandfather's legacy and become a shepherd. However, a new Jewish settlement is threatening her family's entire way of life. She must reconcile peaceful protest and violence, the past and the future, and pride and friendship. A welcome addition to the subject of Israeli-Palestinian relations from a Palestinian character's point of view. Glos.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(4) YA Creation of the Modern Middle East series. These books (Iraq and Palestinian have been revised and updated) are straightforward histories of Middle Eastern countries (though the area's volatility makes the series immediately out of date). The texts are dry, but they do an adequate job of providing background. Useful maps delineate the region's geography, and the many photographs add interest. Reading list, timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Creation of the Modern Middle East titles: United Arab Emirates, The Palestinian National Authority, and Iraq.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(4) YA Creation of the Modern Middle East series. These books (most revised and updated) are straightforward histories of Middle Eastern countries (though the area's volatility makes the series immediately out of date). The texts are dry, but they do an adequate job of providing background. Useful maps delineate the region's geography, and the many photographs add interest. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Creation of the Modern Middle East titles: Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(4) YA Creation of the Modern Middle East series. These books (most revised and updated) are straightforward histories of Middle Eastern countries (though the area's volatility makes the series immediately out of date). The texts are dry, but they do an adequate job of providing background. Useful maps delineate the region's geography, and the many photographs add interest. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Creation of the Modern Middle East titles: Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(4) YA Creation of the Modern Middle East series. These books (most revised and updated) are straightforward histories of Middle Eastern countries (though the area's volatility makes the series immediately out of date). The texts are dry, but they do an adequate job of providing background. Useful maps delineate the region's geography, and the many photographs add interest. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Creation of the Modern Middle East titles: Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(4) YA Creation of the Modern Middle East series. These books (most revised and updated) are straightforward histories of Middle Eastern countries (though the area's volatility makes the series immediately out of date). The texts are dry, but they do an adequate job of providing background. Useful maps delineate the region's geography, and the many photographs add interest. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Creation of the Modern Middle East titles: Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(4) YA Creation of the Modern Middle East series. These books (most revised and updated) are straightforward histories of Middle Eastern countries (though the area's volatility makes the series immediately out of date). The texts are dry, but they do an adequate job of providing background. Useful maps delineate the region's geography, and the many photographs add interest. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Creation of the Modern Middle East titles: Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(4) YA Creation of the Modern Middle East series. These books (most revised and updated) are straightforward histories of Middle Eastern countries (though the area's volatility makes the series immediately out of date). The texts are dry, but they do an adequate job of providing background. Useful maps delineate the region's geography, and the many photographs add interest. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Creation of the Modern Middle East titles: Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(3) YA Translated by Adriana Hunter. After a bomb explodes near her Jerusalem home, Tal, a seventeen-year-old Israeli, asks her military nurse brother to take a message in a bottle to Gaza. The serious, thoughtful young Palestinian man who answers the message cements her commitment to the potential--and necessity--for peace. Strong characterizations, emotional honesty, and vivid descriptions forge a memorable reading experience.

Reviewer: Amy Lois Cohn

(3) YA Barakat tells about her girlhood in Palestine. Most of the book takes place during 1967's Six-Day War and its aftermath, when her family members, having fled Ramallah for Jordan, find themselves living as refugees. Reading and writing help sustain Barakat through the uncertainty of everyday life. The author relates her idiosyncratic collection of memories in vivid, poetic prose. Reading list.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(1) YA Journalist Hampton reported on Black September in 1970 and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The great energy in his on-the-spot accounts carries this book. He emphasizes personal experiences, providing insight into the career of a war correspondent, and also places events in historical context with minimal, but clear, background. Such a straightforward approach creates a solid introduction to complicated situations. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2008

(4) YA Making of the Middle East series. This series presents the history and culture of the complex, influential Middle East region, from the early twentieth century to today. Maps and photographs (some gruesome) expand the dry, straightforward texts, which provide clear accountings of events, places, and political and religious figures. There are five other fall 2007 books in this series. Reading list, timeline, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Making of the Middle East titles: The First World War and the End of the Ottoman Order, The Palestine Mandate and the Creation of Israel, 1920–1949, The Middle East in the Age of Uncertainty, 1991–Present, The Cold War in the Middle East, 1950–1991, and The Rise of Nationalism.

Reviewer: Tamara DePasquale

(4) YA At a university in Virginia, Maya Laor, a twenty-year-old Israeli woman, restores joy and meaning to her life as she recovers from her boyfriend's death in a Tel Aviv suicide bombing. Although the dialogue is sometimes forced and the interior monologues can be repetitive, this first novel features engaging characters and maintains narrative tension throughout.

Reviewer: Amy Lois Cohn

(2) YA In Ellis's thought-provoking discussion-starter, twenty children, ages eight to eighteen, talk about their lives. The children interviewed include Israeli settlers, Israelis opposed to the war, Muslim and Christian Palestinians, and Palestinian refugees. Illustrated with black-and-white photos, the book closes with a list of organizations "trying to make a difference in the situation." Reading list.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2005