Middle East Books

Magic Tree House #34: Season of the Sandstorms (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))

Mary Pope Osborne

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Goo's review 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Season of the Sandstorms is a good book. They go to a desert and find people which help them on their journey to help save Camelot,but you need to read the rest of the book to find about their journey. I hope you injoy this book.

Smarty Pants 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Season of the Sandstorms is about Jack and Annie going on one of Merlin's Missions.This time they go to the golden age of Baghdad and are suppose to help the Caliph sread wisdom to the world.Your going to have to read the rest yourself.You'll also learn who the Caliph is!This was the best book I ever read!

Editorial Review:

Jack and Annie travel back in time to a desert in the Middle East at the behest of Merlin who has given them a rhyme to help on their mission. There they meet a Bedouin tribe and learn about the way that they live. From camel rides and oases to ancient writings and dangerous sandstorms, here’s another Magic Tree House filled with all the mystery, history, magic, and old-fashioned adventure that kids love to read about.


From the Hardcover edition.

The Bronze Bow

Elizabeth George Speare

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 96 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

planning to read it again 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is an interesting read for kids over the age of 10, and for adults as well. The main character depicts a Jewish teenager named Daniel living at the same time as Jesus. Daniel is very disturbed over the Roman occupation of Israel and the death of his parents. The book provides an excellent forum to teach children about religious tolerance and getting along with others. The characters are complex, allowing for deep literary analysis, and the historical context is educational, something that adolescents will associate with, given their background in world history. The story is both endearing and stimulating, with an active plot. My 11 year old is planning to read it again.

5 stars is not enough! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

There are a great deal of "Young Adult Fiction" books that I didn't get around to reading at the "right age." The Bronze Bow is one such book. I didn't read it until I was out of college and had a better understanding of the Jewish faith and customs, and I wondered what had taken me so long. This book is wonderful! It presents an accurate picture of everyday life in early Christian Jerusalem and reveals how family tragedy can scar young lives. Daniel's hatred of the Romans is an obssessive passion; it consumes him to the extent that he cuts himself off from other people and future relationships that he could have. "It is Roman blood I want!" he says and he lives for the day when the last Roman is driven from the land. He sees his relationsips with others, his feelings for his girlfriend Thacia, his sister Leah, and his friend Sampson as his "weakness", something to hold him back from this goal he is trying to reach, and he continually shuts them out, though he is very lonely and unhappy when doing so. Only when he is alone and everyone is slipping away from him does he realize that hatred will not fill the emptiness in his heart.

I have always enjoyed Biblical fiction and am presently working on a book of my own. When I knew that this took place in early Christian times, I grabbed it right away! The unusual thing is that it ends before the
Crucifiction, leaving readers to wonder how the characters of this story will react to it. It beautifully illustrates Christian truths, the power of love over hatred and the power to do all things, even impossible things, with God's help. A treat for fans of Biblical and historical fiction!

Editorial Review:

Set in Galilee in the time of Jesus, this is the story of a young Jewish rebel who is won over to the gentle teachings of Jesus.

Cybele's Secret

Juliet Marillier

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Angieville: CYBELE'S SECRET 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

CYBELE'S SECRET is the sequel to Wildwood Dancing--Juliet Marillier's first young adult novel. I have been a huge Marillier fan ever since picking up her first novel, Daughter of the Forest (The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Book 1), to take with me on a trip to Italy. The wonderful thing about Marillier is that her sequels are always as good as, if not better than, her first books. So even though I liked Wildwood Dancing well enough (it didn't wow me), I was really looking forward to CYBELE'S SECRET to see where she took her characters and what peril they got themselves into.

The story follows Paula, the next to youngest of the five Brasov girls, and the one most noted for her scholarly bent and lack of interest in pretty much all things mundane. Fluent in both Greek and Latin, Paula accompanies her merchant father on a trip to Istanbul to serve as his assistant in his attempt to acquire a most unusual, legendary artifact known as Cybele's Gift. The artifact is a remnant of a long dead pagan cult and is said to bestow upon its owner fortune and blessings untold. Once in Istanbul, Paula's father finds he is just one of several merchants set on purchasing Cybele's Gift. Shadowed closely by her Bulgar bodyguard Stoyan, Paula puts her wits to work ferreting out the history behind the artifact and just why potential buyers keep turning up dead or fleeing town without explanation. Oh, and there's also a dashing pirate and adventure on the high seas.

I enjoyed this sequel quite a bit more than its predecessor. That may have been because I related more to Paula and her struggle to stretch beyond the comfortable boundaries of her introverted nature. I also loved the setting in Istanbul. Marillier's research and immersion in her chosen locale is always evident in her stories and it particularly shone in this one. The twisty markets, the call to prayer, the artfully layered clothing swept me up along with Paula, Duarte, and Stoyan. Though some outcomes were fairly predictable, I always appreciate the loyalty Marillier's characters show one another. Even in the face of extreme doubt and fear. The good, the bad, the gray in between characters are each depicted with their individual virtues and vices and forced to move outside their accustomed circles. No one is perfect and everyone has their less-than-admirable moments as well as their moments when they prove themselves more than they seem. In short, they are all so human. And that's what brings me back to her books over and over again.

Editorial Review:

FOR PAULA, ACCOMPANYING her merchant father on a trading voyage to Istanbul is a dream come true. They have come to this city of trade on a special mission to purchase a most rare artifact—a gift from the ancient goddess, Cybele, to her followers. It’s the only remnant of a lost, pagan cult.

But no sooner have they arrived when it becomes clear they may be playing at a dangerous game. A colleague and friend of Paula’s father is found murdered. There are rumors of Cybele’s cult reviving within the very walls of Istanbul. And most telling of all, signs have begun to appear to Paula, urging her to unlock Cybele’s secret.

Meanwhile, Paula doesn’t know who she can trust in Istanbul, and finds herself drawn to two very different men. As time begins to run out, Paula realizes they may all be tied up in the destiny of Cybele’s Gift, and she must solve the puzzle before unknown but deadly enemies catch up to her. . . .

Four Feet, Two Sandals

Karen Lynn William, Khadra Mohammad

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A thoughtful yet serious picturebook, highly recommended for children's public library and personal collections. 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

Based on co-author Khadra Mohammed's experiences with refugees in Peshawar, a city on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Four Feet, Two Sandals is a children's picturebook about ten-year-old Lina and her young friend who each discover one of a wonderful pair of sandals. Together they must solve the problem of how to share one pair of sandles between four feet! As they wait and hope for their names to appear on a list for a new home, the sandals become a symbol of their fast friendship - a bond that will endure even when one of them finally has the opportunity to escape the hard conditions and live in a new land. The broad brush strokes of illustrator Doug Chayka draw the reader in to the harsh and barren world of the refugees, where positive human relationships are an particular treasure amid the daily difficulty of survival. A thoughtful yet serious picturebook, highly recommended for children's public library and personal collections.

Editorial Review:

When relief workers bring used clothing to the refugee camp, everyone scrambles to grab whatever they can. Ten-year-old Lina is thrilled when she finds a sandal that fits her foot perfectly, until she sees that another girl has the matching shoe. But soon Lina and Feroza meet and decide that it is better to share the sandals than for each to wear only one.

As the girls go about their routines -- washing clothes in the river, waiting in long lines for water, and watching for their names to appear on the list to go to America -- the sandals remind them that friendship is what is most important.

Four Feet, Two Sandals was inspired by a refugee girl who asked the authors why there were no books about children like her. With warm colors and sensitive brush strokes, this book portrays the strength, courage, and hope of refugees around the world, whose daily existence is marked by uncertainty and fear.

Rashi's Daughter, Secret Scholar

Maggie Anton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A great book for Children...unless 4 out of 5 stars.
14 of 16 people found this review helpful.

Having read the first two volumes of Rashi's Daughter's I ordered this immediately upon Amazon making it available, March 28, 2008.I didn't know it was for readers "ten and up." I assumed (always a bad idea) that it would be about the third daughter, Rachel. Silly me. It is a re-telling of the story of Jocheved for younger readers...unless they have read the first two volumes. I will give the book to a young girl, a friend's daughter. I am sure she will find it fascinating.
My disappointment is more than likely my own fault.

Editorial Review:

Set in 11th-century Troyes, France, "Rashi's Daughter" tells the story of Joheved, eldest daughter of Salomon ben Isaac, who is known as Rashi - one of the great medieval Jewish Bible commentators. At a time when women traditionally were barred from studying Jewish texts, Rashi secretly teaches first Joheved, then her sister Miriam. By day, Joheved helps in running the household and the family winemaking business, and by night she studies Talmud with her father. As she nears marriageable age, Joheved finds her mind and spirit awakened by religious study, but she must keep her passion for learning and prayer hidden. When she becomes betrothed to Meir ben Samuel, she is forced to choose between marital happiness and being true to her love of the Talmud.Note: This JPS YA title is adapted from the author's adult title, "Rashi's Daughters, Book I: Joheved".

The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq

Jeanette Winter

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

PLEASE! 1 out of 5 stars.
6 of 31 people found this review helpful.

My wife and I brought our 5 year old son to an interview at a private school we were interested in. They had a box full of this particular book sitting there in front of us while the head-master was evaluating our son. My wife and I each picked-up a copy and flipped through it. I have no problem with childrens books about what's going on in Iraq if done properly. This isn't one of them. At one point, the iraqi woman (Alia) who saved the books shuttles them to her friends restaurant, and they hide them in sacks and curtains. Here's a sample of the story (and I'm paraphrasing - not for effect or an attempt to exaggerate anything, but only because I don't have the book in front of me): "Soldiers [the illustration depicts an american soldier] came to the door of the restaurant and asked Anis [the owner] why he has a gun. 'To protect my business' he replied. The soldiers didn't enter the restaurant, and so Alia and Anis knew the books would be safe." So that's the "hint of the United States' involvement" that the paid reviewers spoke of: Apparently, the evil americans were prepared to destroy all the books if discovered. Garbage.

Editorial Review:

"In the Koran, the first thing God said to Muhammad was 'Read.'"*
--Alia Muhammad Baker

Alia Muhammad Baker is a librarian in Basra, Iraq. For fourteen years, her library has been a meeting place for those who love books. Until now. Now war has come, and Alia fears that the library--along with the thirty thousand books within it--will be destroyed forever.

In a war-stricken country where civilians--especially women--have little power, this true story about a librarian's struggle to save her community's priceless collection of books reminds us all how, throughout the world, the love of literature and the respect for knowledge know no boundaries.

Includes an author's note.
*From the New York Times, July 27, 2003

(09/01/2005)

Mud City

Deborah Ellis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Fourteen-year-old Shauzia dreams of seeing the ocean and eventually making a new life in France, but it is hard to reconcile that dream with the terrible conditions of the Afghan refugee camp where she lives. Making things worse is the camp’s leader, Mrs. Weera, whose demands on Shauzia make her need to escape all the more urgent. Her decision to leave necessitates Shauzia dress like a boy, as her friend Parvana did, to earn money to buy passage out. But her journey becomes a struggle to survive as she's forced to beg and pick through garbage, eventually landing in jail. An apparent rescue by a well-meaning American family gives her hope again, but will it last? And where will she end up? Mud City is the final book in the acclaimed trilogy that includes The Breadwinner (a best-seller) and Parvana's Journey. It paints a devastating portrait of life in refugee camps, where so many children around the world are trapped, some for their whole lives. But it also tells movingly of these kids' resourcefulness and strength, which help them survive these unimaginable circumstances.

Kim (Penguin Classics)

Rudyard Kipling

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 76 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

One of the particular pleasures of reading Kim is the full range of emotion, knowledge, and experience that Rudyard Kipling gives his complex hero. Kim O'Hara, the orphaned son of an Irish soldier stationed in India, is neither innocent nor victimized. Raised by an opium-addicted half-caste woman since his equally dissolute father's death, the boy has grown up in the streets of Lahore:

Though he was burned black as any native; though he spoke the vernacular by preference, and his mother-tongue in a clipped uncertain sing-song; though he consorted on terms of perfect equality with the small boys of the bazar; Kim was white--a poor white of the very poorest.

From his father and the woman who raised him, Kim has come to believe that a great destiny awaits him. The details, however, are a bit fuzzy, consisting as they do of the woman's addled prophecies of "'a great Red Bull on a green field, and the Colonel riding on his tall horse, yes, and'--dropping into English--'nine hundred devils.'"

In the meantime, Kim amuses himself with intrigues, executing "commissions by night on the crowded housetops for sleek and shiny young men of fashion." His peculiar heritage as a white child gone native, combined with his "love of the game for its own sake," makes him uniquely suited for a bigger game. And when, at last, the long-awaited colonel comes along, Kim is recruited as a spy in Britain's struggle to maintain its colonial grip on India. Kipling was, first and foremost, a man of his time; born and raised in India in the 19th century, he was a fervid supporter of the Raj. Nevertheless, his portrait of India and its people is remarkably sympathetic. Yes, there is the stereotypical Westernized Indian Babu Huree Chander with his atrocious English, but there is also Kim's friend and mentor, the Afghani horse trader Mahub Ali, and the gentle Tibetan lama with whom Kim travels along the Grand Trunk Road. The humanity of his characters consistently belies Kipling's private prejudices, and raises Kim above the mere ripping good yarn to the level of a timeless classic. --Alix Wilber

The Best Eid Ever

Asma Mobin-Uddin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Warm hearted story about the celebration of sharing 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is a wonderful story about the joy and happiness that comes from giving. It teaches children that true celebration comes from sharing what you have with others. These values are common to Islam, Judaism and Christianity. This book has particular meaning at this time of the year as all three of these faiths celebrate special holidays this December. Indeed, it is better to give than receive.

Editorial Review:

It's Eid, and Aneesa should be happy. But her parents are thousands of miles away in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj pilgrimage. To cheer her up, her grandmother gives her a gift of beautiful clothes from Pakistan, one outfit for each of the three days of Eid. She even prepares lamb korma, Aneesa's favourite dinner, which they will enjoy when they return from prayers. At the prayer hall, Aneesa meets two sisters who are not dressed in new clothes for the holiday.Aneesa discovers that the girls are refugees. With their father, they have fled from their war-torn country. Aneesa can't stop thinking about the girls and what Eid must be like for them. That's when Aneesa comes up with a plan to help the girls celebrate Eid and make it the best Eid holiday ever.

Beast

Donna Jo Napoli, Rafal Olbinski

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In a narrative as glittering and richly detailed as a Persian miniature, Donna Jo Napoli interprets and amplifies the tale of Beauty and the Beast with startling originality. We've seen her keen psychological insights, surprising viewpoints, and clever twists on traditional fairy tales in previous novels: Hansel and Gretel in The Magic Circle, Rapunzel in Zel, Jack and the Beanstalk in Crazy Jack, and Rumpelstiltskin in Spinners. Here she uses the intriguing setting of ancient Persia in a glorious retelling of the now-Disneyfied favorite--a bold undertaking with which authors from Robin McKinley to Francesca Lia Block have also challenged themselves.

Napoli, however, brings a fresh slant to the story through the eyes of the Beast, Prince Orasmyn, who has been transformed by a curse into a lion--and can only be redeemed by the love of a woman. From this four-footed perspective, the young prince struggles to learn how to survive as a beast while retaining his humanity in devotion to Islamic moral principles. Fleeing his father's hunting park, he travels as an animal across Asia to France, where he at last finds an abandoned chateau. There, using paws and jaws, he plants a rose garden and prepares the castle for the woman he hopes will come to love him. Enter the merchant, the plucked rose, the brave Beauty, and the story wends to its traditional end--but this time with compassion and a new vividness. Into this sumptuous tapestry Napoli has woven a wealth of lore about Persian literature, the tenets of Islam, rose culture, animal behavior--even a leonine mating scene. This level of detail makes for a leisurely pace and a novel that may be more appropriate for older teens who are willing to savor the journey rather than the destination. After all, we all know how the story ends. (Ages 14 and older) --Patty Campbell