Siraaj: an Arab Tale

Siraaj: An Arab Tale by Radwa Ashour. Trans. by Barbara Romaine.

Siraaj: an Arab Tale, part of our Lost in Translation collection, is a fictional account of a small island sultanate in the late nineteenth-century. A tyrannical sultan is caught between maintaining his power, based on slave labor and making concessions to a vast Victorian Empire.  On might be tempted to sympathize with the Sultan were it not for his equally evil, childless wife, his weekly romps with concubines, his stereotypical fondling of his precious gems or the bloody coup against his brother.

Told from multiple points of view, this novella is a densely layered volume of the inter-relationships that can be found among Arabs in the Arab world, the very essence of which is buried in a tale-within-a-tale, “The Ringdove”: “Don’t you know that nothing of good or evil befalls any of us other than that which is enjoined upon us by fate? In the full course of our days, whatever our weaknesses or our strengths, each of us will be tested, whether in poverty or prosperity. So it is destiny that put me in this predicament, that drew me to the bait, and hid the net from me so that I got caught in it, together with my companions” (37).

Against the backdrop of a British naval base being built on the island, rumblings of discontent among the slaves on the island begin, and those who formerly had no reason for revolt find themselves caught up in a revolution for reasons only they can tell.

Post-Arab Spring, this “Arab Tale” is more radical than ever. The Sultan. The People. The West. Who wins?

Sadly, Radwa Ashour passed away in December 2014. For more on her life and literary career, please check out the links below.  She was a remarkable person and should remain in our literary conscience.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/08/radwa-ashour

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/116873.aspx

Vital Stats:

Ashour, Radwa. (2007). Siraaj: an Arab Tale. Trans. By Barbara Romaine. Austin: Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Palestinian Childhoods

Tasting the Sky: a Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat

Review:

This book was gut-wrenching. Talk about putting yourself in someone else's shoes and walking around in them. Unless you were 3-year-old Ibtisam Barakat.  Then you have to walk barefoot in her tracks.  She was too young to tie her own shoes, and it was too dark for her to find her other shoe when her family fled, leaving her behind when enemy tanks invaded Ramallah in 1967, soldiers shooting over her head. Barakat relates a heart-breaking story of a family's survival in the midst of cruel and unsettling (literally, unsettling) circumstances without villianizing any people group. What she tells is her story, but its more than just plot. She's artfully crafted a narrative that pays tribute to the gift of language, which was for her the gift of empowerment. She uses a language, based on a common mother-tongue, to pose questions of national boundaries versus common ancestry, and whether language can bring hope and refuge.

Awards & Honors for Tasting the Sky:

Arab-American National Museum Book Award for Children’s/YA Literature

“Careful choice of episodes and details brings to life a Palestinian world that may be unfamiliar to American readers, but which they will come to know and appreciate.”

--Kathleen Isaacs, School Library Journal Review

“Ibtisam’s reverence for language informs nearly everything she does, and it keeps her alive, whether corresponding with her pen pals or crafting this memoir: ‘a thread/of a story/stitches together/a wound.’”

--Publisher’s Weekly Review

“What makes the memoir so compelling is the immediacy of the child’s viewpoint, which depicts both conflict and daily life without exploitation or sentimentalilty.”

--Hazel Rochman, Booklist

Vital Stats:

Tasting the Sky: a Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat

Harrisonburg, VA: RR Donnelley & Sons, 2007.

ISBN 9780374357337

A Little Piece of Ground by Elizabeth Laird with Sonia Nimr

Review:

An interesting story about life within the confines of occupied Palestine, in this young adult novel three boys from Ramallah unite to clear away a piece of land for a soccer field between curfews, only to realize that their dream may never hold. A Little Piece of Ground explores the human cost of the occupation of Palestinian lands through the eyes of 12-year-old boys Karim, Jony and Hopper. In response to a Palestinian suicide bombing, curfews are tightened again, and Karim who gets caught outside takes shelter in an abandoned car right under the nose of enemy soldiers, wondering if he will survive.

Rewards & Honors for A Little Piece of Ground:

“A Little Piece of Ground deserves serious attention and discussion.”

--Coop Renner, School Library Journal Review

“The heartbreaking personal drama visualizes the realistic challenges of wartime life at home, as well as the diversity of opinion about religion, class, and politics in the community.”

--Hazel Rochman, Booklist

Vital Stats:

A Little Piece of Ground by Elizabeth Laird with Sonia Nimr

Chicago: Haymarket, 2006.

ISBN 9781931859387  

Further Resources for Understanding (from the Appendix of Tasting the Sky):

Promises, a film by Justine Shapiro, B.Z. Goldbert and Carlos Bolado)

http://www.promisesproject.org

Seeds of Peace

http://www.seedsofpeace.org

New Collection: Lost in Translation

From Arabic to English: Lost in Translation

In speeches and conversations, American poet Robert Frost has often been quoted as saying, “Poetry is what gets lost in translation. It is also what is lost in interpretation.” A few months ago, the English Department asked me if the library had any books originally written in Arabic that had been translated into English that were written for Young Adults.” I had no idea.  Thus began my quest.  It has been delightful.  I’m proud to announce a new featured collection “From Arabic to English: Lost in Translation,” which examines the difficulty of translating traditional Arabic forms of literature—from Kalila wa Dimna to Hayy ibn Yaqzan—into English.  When I ask them about bits of Holy Koran or Arabic poetry, so many students say, “Miss, it’s just not the same in English.”  However, after studying authors like Ghassan Kanafani, Mourid Barghouti, Hoda Barakat, Tayyib Saleh and Mahmoud Darwish, I feel compelled to share their voices, even in broken English. These are works of profound significance, worthy of translation, no matter if some poetry may be lost, no matter the risk of misinterpretation.  Here is a list of available Arabic titlestranslated to English as well as our New Arrivals.  Please drop by to have a look or go online or to your local libraries to find some of these titles.  They are worth looking into. Reading translated literature imbues the reader with a sensitivity toward the outside world that people who don’t read can sometimes lack (John Connelly, The Book of Lost Things).

Winter Is for Reading

Winter gives us the perfect excuse to curl up with a good book, write in our journals or read with our children.  The poet William Carlos Williams challenges the howling North Wind in his poem, “January”:

Play louder.

You will not succeed. I am

bound more to my sentences

the more you batter at me

to follow you.

You can always take shelter from the winter winds in your library.

Over the break, I discovered a fantastic reading app that kept my children entertained on the iPads for longer than they should have been.  Reading Rainbow, a show that aired on the Public Broadcasting System in the US for over 20 years, has now put all their wonderful experience into creating a safe, online environment for kids.  If your kids are like mine, you can never have enough reading apps.  You can check Reading Rainbow out for free.

Snowstorm Huda blasted Amman, but I was prepared.  I finished Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih, I'd save this book for college students, or those familiar with Conrad or Achebe.  I don't know that very many high school readers would catch the nuances of the text, post-colonialism, deconstruction, some existentialism, some great feminist stuff.  You need a lot of lenses to unpack this text, which makes it really good reading for those of us who love to read, but probably a little too confusing and complex for those just starting out.  I really liked it though.  It would be great to teach in World Lit.  

I also read Jane Yolen's collection of short stories, Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast. It was interesting, but just that, a collection of fantasy short stories for Young Adults.  There were some "horror" stories, but they weren't very scary compared to what kids read today.  My favorites were "Mama Gone," a story set in Appalachia, wherein the young protagonist must face her vampire mother.  "Winter's King" sticks with me, not because of the plot, but because of its beautiful writing.  It reminded me of Game of Thrones.  I thought it was beautiful.  "The Babysitter," perhaps the most "horrorific" of them all had a nice twist at the end.  

My favorite was Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. My Goodreads reviews are now linked, but I'll repost it here.  I would give one caviat.  In a conservative culture, I would recommend this for 16 and up, no younger, just to be on the safe side with parents.

I wish John Hughes were still alive, because ELEANOR & PARK needs to be made into a John Hughes movie, circa 1986, the year in which it is set in the most unlikely of Midwestern towns, Omaha. Rainbow Rowell, did you make Eleanor into Molly Ringwald on purpose or was it typecasting? It took me two days to read this, and it felt like I was 16 again, hoping, praying, that some boy, any boy, would notice me, but not quite sure how to make it happen. And the bus rides, oh, the bus rides. Wondering what mean girl was stalking you, why you felt ostracized. The music, the Smiths, the Smithereens, U2, Foreigner, the soundtrack of my life. And the quiet, mysterious boy, the one who took martial arts, who probably kept a journal, who didn't talk about it, who melted your insides. Learning to drive. That first kiss. That promise of something more you know will never come true. The golden moment caught in time, like a picture, in your yearbook. Friends Forever, Eleanor & Park. 

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. London: Hachette/Orion. ISBN 9781409120544. Pbk.

December Wishes

December is the most exciting time to give books, which makes it the most exciting time in the world of publishing.  All you have to do is Google “best books of 2014,” and you will get results from The New York Times Best Illustrated Books and the Man Booker Prize to the smallest, one-room library in rural Iowa. There are so many great ideas, especially when you add the key words, “childrens” or “young adult” to the search. 

However, what I enjoy most about December is the time the short days and longer nights allow for contemplation about the act of reading itself. For me, reading is about sharing human narratives that transcend culture, time and space.  As C.S. Lewis put it so well, “In reading great literature, I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. . . . I see with a myriad of eyes, but it is still I who see.” Reading connects human beings because it makes human beings more sure of who they are.  That connectedness, where the transcendent meets the ordinary, is the word shining light in the darkness.

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 All things were created through Him,
and apart from Him not one thing was created
that has been created.
4 Life was in Him,
and that life was the light of men.
5 That light shines in the darkness,
yet the darkness did not overcome it.

John 1:1-5

This holiday, my wish is that your family will take some time to read and to talk to each other about why you read, what you read, when or where. Connect with each other through old family narratives, traditions, and festivities. Celebrate!  Take note, there may be a story-teller in your midst.

Now I Have to Go(dot) See the Play

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Finally read it. Not sure what I was waiting for.

View all my reviews

What Girls Read

30 November

A great deal of scholarly attention has been paid to what boys like to read in the last decade. We know that boys like action-packed adventure stories and are drawn to graphic novels and facts and statistics.  It’s almost taken for granted that girls like to read, but is that always the case?  While it is always true that personal experience affects the brain’s wiring, girls do seem to show stronger verbal skills and demonstrate empathy more readily than boys.  According to David Chadwell, an expert in gender differentiation in classroom teaching, boys learn best through structure and girls through connection. This means girls need to voice their opinion, make connections between what they read and their lives, and use manipulatives or real objects to explore concepts.  Boys need this, too—it’s just that girls really need it!  The difference is very clear to me when I reflect on the book choices students make in the library.  From the earliest years, girls choose what they know: princesses and fairies, books they connect to because they know they are our little princesses, our most treasured possessions.  In Primary, they become interested in cooking and crafts, real things they do in real life.  In Secondary, they go in two directions.  They get involved in “teen drama” or books about social movements.  Books from authors like Meg Cabot, Sarah Dessen, Sara Shepard—even Jane Austin and Charlotte Bronte—tend to mirror the internal and external conflict of adolescent angst while books like Half the Sky or Girls Gone Green nurture the opinionated girls with the drive and ambition to save the world. You can review any of these books or authors on the IAA Libraries’ website @ http://library.iaa.edu.jo/.  Please feel free to stop by any of the libraries to discuss books for girls and boys.