Habibi

Review of Habibi

A. Book Information

Nye, Naomi Shihab. 1997. Simon & Schuster. New York, NY. ISBN 0-689-80149-1.

B. Plot Summary

Liyana, a young teenager has just experienced the jubilation of her first kiss when her father announces that the family will move back to his homeland of Jerusalem. He is an Arab, and upon hearing that turmoil is lessening in the country he decides it is the opportune time to move. This book is about a teenage girl finding a place for herself, and along the way discovering the tragedy and beauty that is humanity.

C. Critical Analysis

“Poppy would pass through the house lifting his nose to the air saying, There it is, there’s my country… Well where was hers? Was she on the verge of finding out? Sometimes Liyana felt she had passed her own country already and it was an age, not a place,” (p. 12).

Liyana, on the journey of a lifetime finds out for herself that the things that make a place a home can be found anywhere, “She did not feel like a foreigner in the Old City anymore. Now she had her own landmarks and scenes to remember. She had Hani, the banana seller, Bilal, the fabric seller, and Bassam, the spice man…She knew the blind shopkeeper who sat on a stool in front of his shop nodding and saying, Sabah-al-khair—Good Morning---to the air. The Old City was inside her already,” (p. 235).

The main character, Liyana is easy to identify with as she writes in her notebook about the ups and downs of adolescence, such as her first kiss and later the new boy she likes (who is Jewish and her family is not!). This book brings insight and understanding into the culture that surrounds Jersusalem, while showing the commonness of us all.

The setting of this book takes us from St. Louis, Missouri to Jerusalem, and along the way we learn with Liyana many things about the culture that she comes to embrace, and other aspects she refuses to accept—such as the hostility between the religious populations. “In Jerusalem so much old anger floated around, echoed from fading graffiti, seeped out of cracks,” (p. 89).

This book is rich in cultural markers, many of which are experienced by Liyana for the first time. For example, the family Liyana meets in Jerusalem is nearly opposite of her mother’s family in America, “But this bustling group of aunts and uncles swirled in circles as Sitti, their grandmother, threw her strong arms around each one of them in succession, squeezing so tightly that Liyana lost her breath,” (p. 39). We learn of the different expectations of young ladies, including a more conservative dress code requiring that Liyana wear modest skirts and blouses. She is inspected each day at school and gets in trouble one day when she forgets to remove a ring she loves so much.

This is a rare gem of a book, offering richness in characters and plot, as it takes the audience from one culture to the next, and allows the reader to share in Liyana’s new experiences first-hand.

D. Review Excerpts

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-9. An important first novel from a distinguished anthologist and poet. When Liyana's doctor father, a native Palestinian, decides to move his contemporary Arab-American family back to Jerusalem from St. Louis, 14-year-old Liyana is unenthusiastic. Arriving in Jerusalem, the girl and her family are gathered in by their colorful, warmhearted Palestinian relatives and immersed in a culture where only tourists wear shorts and there is a prohibition against boy/girl relationships. When Liyana falls in love with Omer, a Jewish boy, she challenges family, culture, and tradition, but her homesickness fades. Constantly lurking in the background of the novel is violence between Palestinian and Jew. It builds from minor bureaucratic annoyances and humiliations, to the surprisingly shocking destruction of grandmother's bathroom by Israeli soldiers, to a bomb set off in a Jewish marketplace by Palestinians. It exacts a reprisal in which Liyana's friend is shot and her father jailed. Nye introduces readers to unforgettable characters. The setting is both sensory and tangible: from the grandmother's village to a Bedouin camp. Above all, there is Jerusalem itself, where ancient tensions seep out of cracks and Liyana explores the streets practicing her Arabic vocabulary. Though the story begins at a leisurely pace, readers will be engaged by the characters, the romance, and the foreshadowed danger. Poetically imaged and leavened with humor, the story renders layered and complex history understandable through character and incident. Habibi succeeds in making the hope for peace compellingly personal and concrete...as long as individual citizens like Liyana's grandmother Sitti can say, "I never lost my peace inside."?Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial Library, Greenwich, CT From School The New York Times Book Review, Karen Leggett
Adolescence magnifies the joys and anxieties of growing up even as it radically simplifies the complexities of the adult world. The poet and anthologist Naomi Shibab Nye is meticulously sensitive to this rainbow of emotion in her autobiographical novel, Habibi…. Habibi gives a reader all the sweet richness of a Mediterranean dessert, while leaving some of the historic complexities open to interpretation. (Ages 10 and older)

Accessed at:

http://www.amazon.com/Habibi-Naomi-Shihab-Nye/dp/0689825234/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-1586993-9296931?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185570848&sr=8-1

E. Connections

Other books for young people by Naomi Shihab Nye.

· Sitti’s Secret. ISBN 0689817061

· The Flag of Childhood: Poems from the Middle East. ISBN 0689851723

· 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East. ISBN 0060504048