Description

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A powerful and groundbreaking memoir set in Ramallah during the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War, this work captures what it is like to be a child whose world is shattered by war. Candid and courageous, it stitches together the haunting memories of the narrator’s life: the fear and confusion felt as bombs explode near her home and she is separated from her family, the harshness of life as a Palestinian refugee, and her unexpected joy when she discovers the first letter of the Arabic alphabet. As language becomes her refuge, she begins to piece together the fragments of her splintered world.

 

Una biografía conmovedora y vanguardista ambientado en Ramala a finales de la Guerra de los Seis Días, este relato captura lo que es ser una niña cuyo mundo está trastornado por la guerra. Sincero y valiente, reúne las memorias evocadoras de la juventud de la narradora: el temor y la confusión que sentía cuando caen bombas cerca de su casa y ella es separada de su familia, la dureza de la vida como una refugiada palestina y su gozo imprevisible al descubrir la primera letra del alfabeto árabe. A la medida que el lenguaje se convierte en su refugio, ella comienza a construir pieza por pieza su mundo astillado.

About the Author

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Ibtisam Barakat is an author, a poet, and an educator. She taught language ethics at Stephens College and is the founder of the Write Your Life seminars. She lives in Columbia, Missouri.

Praise For…

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"Beautifully crafted vignettes . . .[bring] to life a Palestinian world that may be unfamiliar to American readers, but which they will come to know and appreciate. Readers will be charmed by the writer-to-be as she falls in love with chalk, the Arabic alphabet, and the first-grade teacher who recognizes her abilities."  —School Library Journal

"A spare, eloquent memoir. . . . What makes [it] so compelling is the immediacy of the child's viewpoint, which depicts both conflict and daily life without exploitation or sentimentality."  —Booklist