Habibi Web Page
Project by:  Anisah Ansari, Katie Profili, Sabra McIntosh, Ellen Campion

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Book Talk

Liyanna Abboud's emergence into womanhood is complicated by the fact that she walks a line between two completely different cultures.  Her entire life has been lived in the United States and she has grown up thinking with a Western mind.  But life takes a drastic turn for Liyanna when her father announces that the entire family is moving back to his native country of Palestine.  For Liyanna, the announcement  and the final destination seem like the end of everything that is important to her.  She is being asked to leave the stability of the United States and move to war-torn Palestine where soldiers with guns patrolling the streets is a common sight.  In addition, she is being asked to leave behind the boy who has given her her first taste of passion, the boy she has vowed she will always love.

Liyanna knows very little about her Palestinian heritage almost none of its language.  She journeys to her father’s homeland a stranger and must learn to become a member of her own family.  Life in Palestine seems very bleak until she meets Omer.  In Omer she finds a friend in a land full of strangers and a second chance to experience love.  When it looks like Liyanna might have another chance at happiness as well, she finds out that Omer is Jewish and in her father’s homeland, their friendship is a forbidden thing.  Now Liyanna must find a way to hold on to her happiness as well as her family.

Naomi Shihab Nye was born March 12, 1952 in St. Louis, Missouri to Palestinian and American parents.  Before receiving her B.A. from Trinity University in 1974 in San Antonio, Texas, Nye's family lived in St. Louis for 14 years, Jerusalem for 1 year and the remainder of her high school years in San Antonio.  Nye continues to live in San Antonio with her husband and son.

Nye is an internationally acclaimed author of several novels,books of poems and short stories. She has also edited numerous collections of poetry.  Nye has received many awards for her literary achievements including 4 Pushcart Prizes, the Texas Institute of Letters Poetry awards, the Patterson Poetry Award, the Charity Randall Prize for Spoken Poetry from the International Poetry Forum, the I. B. Lavan Award and the Jane Addams Book Award. She is a 1997-98 recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship.

Nye's American and Palestinian heritage and multicultural adolescent experiences give her personal background from which to draw emotions and characters in her poems and other works.  She gives voice to those memories and experiences that may bring the reader closer to understanding how people of the world are so similar and so isolated. She is especially close to the midwestern, the Texan and the middle eastern voices. As a young adult she says that she did not fear the differences between peoples.  "In fact, I loved them.  This is one of the best things about growing up in a mixed family or community.  You never think only one way of doing or seeing anything is right."

• Review of Habibi http://www.ala.org/booklist/v94/youth/se2/57nye.html
• Link to review and interview regarding selected Nye works http://www.eyeontomorrow.com/embracingthe child/bookspecialnye.htm

1) Students will take turns being the expert on one section of the novel each day. They prepare questions to ask other students and lead a brief class discussion on that section of the novel. (Webquest #3)

2) Before reading the novel, students will research the history and customs of Palestine, including the relationship between the Jewish, Armenian, and Arabian peoples, the significance of places such as the Garden of Gethsemene, Bethlehem, and other landmarks mentioned in the novel, the school system in the Middle East, traditionally Arabian foods, etc.  These topics will be split up among students and shared as presentations to the class. (Webquest #1) (Webquest #2)

3) Students take the voice of either Jackson or Claire and write to Liyana asking her about her new life in Palestine.  They “send” their letters to other members in the class.  When students receive their letters, they take the new voice of Liyana to respond to her friend.

4) Students will create a 3-D map of Liyana’s journeys to and in Palestine, placing the representations of different places mentioned in the novel around the classroom.  Students follow Liyana’s path in the novel and detail happenings at each place.  The map should be relatively accurate in comparison to an actual map of the Middle East and the United States. (Webquest #2) (Webquest #3)

5) Students will listen to Palestinian music, will view actual photographs of the lifestyle of the people there (possibly search the Internet for pictures or National Geographic magazines) and will taste some foods from the region.  Then they will write a reaction to this small taste of the culture that Liyana is dealing with. (Webquest #3)

6) Students will find out the currency used in Palestine and will convert the prices of some of their possessions to discover how much things would cost in Palestine.

• Different Ways to Pray, (1980), out of print.
• Hugging the Jukebox, (1982), out of print.
• Yellow Glove, (1986), out of print.
• Red Suitcase: Poems, (1994), BOA Editions, Ltd.
• The Words Under the Words: Selected Poems, (1995), Eighth Mountain Press.
• Never in a Hurry: Essay on People and Places, (1996), University of South Carolina Press.
• The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems, (1998), Graywolf Press.
• Fuel: Poems ( American Poets Continuum, No 47), (1998), BOA Editions, Ltd.
• What Have You Lost?, (1999), Greenwillow

• The Space Between Our Footsteps, Poems and Paintings from the Middle East, (1998), Simon & Schuster (JUV).
• I Feel a Little Jumpy Around You, Paired Poems by Men and Women, (1996), (1998), Simon & Schuster (JUV).
• This Same Sky, A Collection of Poems from Around the World, (1992), Simon & Schuster (JUV).
• Salting The Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets, (2000), Greenwillow.

Picture Books:

• Sitti's Secrets, (1994), Simon & Schuster (JUV).
• Benito's Dream Bottle, (1995), Simon & Schuster.
• Lullaby Raft, (1997), Simon & Schuster (JUV).

Other Authors/Related Books:

• What's the Matter Habibi, Betsy Lewin, (1997), Clarion Books; children's book
• The Hidden Treasure, Pata Khazana: A Biography of the Pashtoon Poets, Mohammad Hotak, (1996), University Press of America; poetry and reviews of poetry.
• The Arabian Nights, Husain Hadday, (1995), W.W. Norton and Company
• Shadow Spinner, Susan Fletcher, (1998), Aladdin Paperbacks.
• Voices of Change: Short Stories by Saudi Arabian Women Writers, Abu Bakr Bagader, (1998), Three Continents Press.
• Into the Widening World: International Coming of Age Stories, John Loughery, (1994), Persea Books.
• Leaving Home: Stories, Hazel Rochman, (1998), Harper Collins.
• In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, Bette Bao Lord, (1986), Harper Trophy.
• Sign of the Beaver, Elizabeth George Speare, (1994), Yearling Books.
• Racing The Sun, Paul Pitts, (1988), Camelot.
• The Always Prayer Shawl, Sheldon Oberman, (1994), School and Library Binding.
• I Was Dreaming to Come to America: Memories from the Ellis Island Oral History Project, Veronica Lawlor, Rudolph W. Guiliani(1997), Puffin.
• Aekying's Dream, Min Paek, (1988), Childrens Book Press.
• Broken Bridge, Philip Pullman, (1996), Flare.
• Running on Eggs, Anna Levine, (1999), Front Street Press.
• Immigrant Kids, Russell Freedman, (1995), Puffin.

Classroom activity #2 involves researching history and relationships between Palestinian and Israeli peoples.  The following website will be useful because it provides links to these relationships and about the history surrounding them.
http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/maps/

The following website provides historical and recent maps of the Arab Israeli boundaries which will be useful to complete classroom activities #2 and #4.
http://www.cfi-usa.org/mapdata/historicalmaps.html

This website contains information regarding culture, including the Palestinian National Anthem, maps, pictures and photographs, poetry and an historical chronology, that would be useful for classroom activities #1, #4, and #5.
http://mypalestine.cjb.net/