Bibliographic data
Nye, Naomi Shihab. Habibi. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1999.
Brief plot summary
Liyana received her first real kiss and then found out that she and her family will be moving all the way to Palestine. Moving is traumatic for anyone, especially a teenager moving across the world to a place where she doesn’t even understand the language. Liyana knows very little about her father’s homeland and culture. Will Liyana learn to love this part of the world or will she continue to come across difficulties that make her yearn for St. Louis and the boy that kissed her?
Critical analysis
Nye is of Palestinian and American descent. Nye’s works of literature and poems are taken from personal experiences and knowledge. Habibi has won several awards including the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award (1998) and the American Library Association Notable Books for Children (1998). Nye has lived in America as well as around the Middle East, so her stories have great significance and authenticity.
Cultural differences are demonstrated early on in the novel. Right before leaving for Palestine, Liyana had her first kiss. This is normal for a fourteen year-old in the United States, but she soon finds out that this is basically banned in Palestine. She can’t walk around wearing her skirts or shorts, but instead she has almost a uniform-type look to make herself covered and to look like all the other women walking around.
One of the most important significant cultural differences within Habibi was the difference in the feelings of the Arabs, Jews, Palestinian, and other Middle Easterners. The differences in cultures are difficult to grasp, partly because they don’t make sense. There is too much hatred and violence going on.
Each short chapter begins with a phrase, usually something that brings some deep thinking to the mind, or good talking points. These would be great additions to discuss with students if one so chooses to use this book as a school assignment.
Review excerpts
School Library Journal
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.”
Kirkus Reviews
Nye shows all of the charms and flaws of the old city through unique, short-story-like chapters and poetic language. The sights, sounds, and smells of Jerusalem drift through the pages and readers glean a sense of current Palestinian-Israeli relations and the region's troubled history. In the process, some of the passages become quite ponderous while the human story- -Liyana's emotional adjustments in the later chapters and her American mother's reactions overall--fall away from the plot. However, Liyana's romance with an Israeli boy develops warmly, and readers are left with hope for change and peace as Liyana makes the city her very own.
Connections
Read other stories and poem selections by Nye
Nye, Naomi Shihab. Habibi. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1999.
Brief plot summary
Liyana received her first real kiss and then found out that she and her family will be moving all the way to Palestine. Moving is traumatic for anyone, especially a teenager moving across the world to a place where she doesn’t even understand the language. Liyana knows very little about her father’s homeland and culture. Will Liyana learn to love this part of the world or will she continue to come across difficulties that make her yearn for St. Louis and the boy that kissed her?
Critical analysis
Nye is of Palestinian and American descent. Nye’s works of literature and poems are taken from personal experiences and knowledge. Habibi has won several awards including the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award (1998) and the American Library Association Notable Books for Children (1998). Nye has lived in America as well as around the Middle East, so her stories have great significance and authenticity.
Cultural differences are demonstrated early on in the novel. Right before leaving for Palestine, Liyana had her first kiss. This is normal for a fourteen year-old in the United States, but she soon finds out that this is basically banned in Palestine. She can’t walk around wearing her skirts or shorts, but instead she has almost a uniform-type look to make herself covered and to look like all the other women walking around.
One of the most important significant cultural differences within Habibi was the difference in the feelings of the Arabs, Jews, Palestinian, and other Middle Easterners. The differences in cultures are difficult to grasp, partly because they don’t make sense. There is too much hatred and violence going on.
Each short chapter begins with a phrase, usually something that brings some deep thinking to the mind, or good talking points. These would be great additions to discuss with students if one so chooses to use this book as a school assignment.
Review excerpts
School Library Journal
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.”
Kirkus Reviews
Nye shows all of the charms and flaws of the old city through unique, short-story-like chapters and poetic language. The sights, sounds, and smells of Jerusalem drift through the pages and readers glean a sense of current Palestinian-Israeli relations and the region's troubled history. In the process, some of the passages become quite ponderous while the human story- -Liyana's emotional adjustments in the later chapters and her American mother's reactions overall--fall away from the plot. However, Liyana's romance with an Israeli boy develops warmly, and readers are left with hope for change and peace as Liyana makes the city her very own.
Connections
Read other stories and poem selections by Nye
Read “Sitti’s Secrets” by Nye
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