Reviews

This book is about big things and small things. This is about a girl and her home. It is about fitting in and finding a space in the world. It is about discovering the scariness of the world and just how to live through it. It takes huge topics a gives everyone a way to be introduced to them and start learning. I loved every second.

karinlib's review against another edition

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3.0

I am not really sure how to rate this book. It took me forever to finish it. I think it's because none of the characters really interested me. The main topic of the book being Israeli-Palestinian relations seemed to be biased. It didn't show that both sides of the conflict are wrong (and right). Both sides need to change.

punkassbookjockey84's review against another edition

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5.0

Though this is an older book, it is still very applicable today.Nye is most famous as a poet and her poetic style shines through in this book, making it a rich with beautiful images. Partially the story of Nye’s own childhood, it tells the story of Liyana, a fifteen-year-old Arab-American whose family moves to Jerusalem. Taking place during the relative peace that occurred in the late nineties, Liyana and her brother Rafik are introduced to a world at once beautiful and frightening. Liyana befriends a boy named Omer, a Jewish boy who believes, like her, in a better world for Israel. Nye’s writing makes this book funny at the same time that it is sad. The politics are generally in the background of the story, as it is foremost Liyana’s transitioning not only into womanhood, but also into this new place. When she first finds out that Omer is Jewish, she says that she understands the issue mainly from the Arab’s side because her “father’s family lost their house and their money in the bank and lots of their community when [her] father was a boy and the Palestinians were suffering so much, just kicked around till recently as if they were second-class human beings,” and that she knows “the Jewish people suffered so much themselves, but don’t you think it should have made them more sensitive to the sufferings of others, too?” (Habibi 158). Throughout, the novel is a hope in the next generation, that through them peace will finally reign. Liyana is constantly reminded of how different this world is from the one she grew up in, as when they go to a church on Christmas and her eye is drawn to the sign that says, “NO ARMS ALLOWED INSIDE THIS CHURCH” (166). When her Sitti’s (grandmother’s) house is destroyed by soldiers looking for her nephew that had been away at college for years, Liyana asks why the soldiers destroyed the bathtub, only to be told by her father that “there is no why” (177). She thinks to herself that she thought there was always a why, but after she views the senseless destruction of the house, she finds herself quoting her father’s statement. When she gets to school and repeats the events that transpired to her friends, they are remarkably unimpressed. It is a sad moment when the reader realizes that this is such a day-to-day occurrence that it is almost commonplace. “People got used to disasters. No one was even killed” (183).
Towards the end, Liyana’s father is arrested for trying to stop the soldiers from shooting her and Rafik’s friend Khaled. When Liyana tries to see him she is treated with belligerence by the soldiers at the prison and only after throwing a tantrum is allowed to see him, and then only for a few minutes. As she is leaving, she shouts at the soldiers that “YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY!” and though they don’t respond, their looks of surprise give a glimmer of hope that perhaps they will consider her words (222). When Omer wants to visit the village where Sitti lives and, after his experience of being arrested, her father doesn’t want to allow it. In a fit, Liyana yells at him “Didn’t you say before you went in jail that it would be great if people never described each other as ‘the Jew’ or ‘the Arab’ or ‘the black guy’ or ‘the white guy’—didn’t you just SAY?” (230). In the horrors of the reality, we often forget the general wish for peace and equality. But there is this hope throughout the book that through this generation of young children, perhaps that peace can come. This would make a great follow to Three Wishes. They both have that similar wish for the next generation, though written about ten years apart. And though the peaceful bit of time in which this book was written didn’t last, and though things have in fact gotten worse since then, that hope transcends time. Nye has been quoted as wanting to reach those people who don’t know the whole story, especially American Jews (“A Book Group Epiphany” 16). It is most suitable for middle school to ninth or tenth grade students.

mmotleyu's review against another edition

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2.0

Well, I picked this book up believing it to be the Habibi that is on the 2015 most challenged books list... gotta remember to check the author, but there could only be 1 book titled Habibi, right? I had a hard time reading this because nothing ever really happened. It is a nice intro for higher elementary students to the Arab/Israeli conflict as an Arab American girl moves to Jerusalem when she is 14 and tries to figure out her place in her culture and in this area of the world that has known little peace. There are brief glimpses of violence like when her grandmother's bathroom is destroyed by Jewish soldiers for no reason and later her father is jailed for helping a refugee boy who has been shot in the leg. The violence is on the periphery; this is really a story of hope for peace shown through the naive eyes of a young Arab girl who likes a young Israeli boy. Not the read that I had hoped for, but one I would give my 10 year old daughter for an intro to issues... not sure how confused a younger reader might be with the geography of all the gates in Jerusalem and the West Bank and other geographic/cultural/religious terms/places.

theresa_timber's review against another edition

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funny informative inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

chickchick22's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Hilarious and informative.

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