Wishing Upon the Same Stars

December 1, 2021
Twelve-year-old Yasmeen Khoury doesn't want to leave Detroit for San Antonio, Texas. However, her father's new job means the whole family is driving across the country to a new home in the suburbs, where all the houses look the same. The daughter of Christian parents--a Palestinian father and Lebanese mother--Yasmeen is no longer surrounded by an Arab community and faces bullying and racist name-calling at school. Meanwhile, Yasmeen's Baba's family is losing their home to Israeli expansion in Jerusalem. The Cohens, the Khourys' new neighbors, are a Jewish Israeli family; Ayelet Cohen is in seventh grade with Yasmeen, and Mr. Cohen is coach of the after-school math club Yasmeen joins. This work, informed by the author's own life and experiences, tackles many themes around identity, including the histories of Israel and Palestine, anti-Arab racism in the American South, and growing up in immigrant families that are deeply affected by events back home. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is presented as a dispute between two sides who have been equally wronged, and as Yasmeen and Ayelet find themselves trying to make sense of long-standing intergenerational pain symbolized as conflict between their fathers, the book delves into the history of the region, sometimes through intrusive infodumps. Mr. Cohen is portrayed as conciliatory and reasonable; by contrast, Yasmeen's Baba is shown as explosively angry. An ambitious novel about home and belonging that longs for more nuance. (author's note) (Fiction. 8-12)

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January 1, 2022

Gr 5 Up-The Isreali-Palestinian conflict takes center stage in this middle grade novel. Yasmeen Khoury, an Arab American girl living in Detroit, Michigan, is devastated to hear she and her family will be moving to Texas. Yasmeen is used to her life in Michigan where there are many Arab American families; she has a lot of concerns about her new home, but her biggest worry is fitting in at school. As she feared, Yasmeen feels different and out of place in most of her classes, but she is soon invited to an after-school club called Math Lab. While she is excited about the club, she is worried her parents won't allow her to join: the coach of the club is Mr. Cohen, the father of the Israeli family across the street. Meanwhile, Yasmeen's dad watches the conflict growing worse in Israel, and Yasmeen is finding a new friend in Mr. Cohen's daughter, Ayelet. Can Yasmeen's family and the Cohens get along? Many readers will see themselves in Feldman's debut novel. Yasmeen's thoughts and actions feel authentic, and the friendship between her and Ayelet unfolds hesitantly, as would be expected. The information, thoughts, and feelings relating to the conflict are expertly done, especially for upper elementary readers. At times the plot feels a bit long, as it covers Yasmeen's entire first year in Texas, but readers will likely enjoy her journey. VERDICT This valuable title explores an issue rarely discussed in contemporary children's literature. Highly recommended for middle grade collections.-Lisa Buffi

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January 1, 2022
Grades 5-8 After her Palestinian Lebanese family makes the monumental decision to leave their close-knit Detroit Arab community for a job opportunity in San Antonio, Yasmeen finds herself the target of racist remarks and skeptical classmates. Adding to that tension, her grandmother joins them after her own home is demolished by Israelis, and their friendly new neighbors turn out to be Jewish Israeli Americans. Though Yasmeen is drawn to their daughter, she knows that her parents will never approve, so she yearns to bridge that gap, build peace between the families, and find her place in a strange new world. This absorbing story compassionately tackles challenging subjects: immigration, explicit racism, family strife, and the enormity of Palestinian-Israeli history. A simple introduction to the complicated conflict discusses the backgrounds of both sides, along with the difficulty of combining long familial history with newer American citizenship. Feldman strikes a balance by bringing her own experiences to the story and offering an ultimately optimistic message of hope and a chance for peace in ways both big and small.

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