Nye, Naomi Shihab. 1997. Habibi. New York: Simon Pulse. ISBN 9780689825231
The Characters
The main characters of Habibi are Liyana Abboud, her brother, Rafik, her father Kamal and her mother Susan. Other characters include Liyana's very large extended family.
The Plot
Liyana's family moves from St. Louis to Jerusalem, the land of her father. Liyana and her brother were born and raised in the United States and she definitely doesn't want to move, especially since she just got her first kiss from a cute boy named Jackson. After the family moves to Palestine, Liyana must get used to her huge family and the difficulties of the hatred between Arabs and Jews.
The Setting
Palestine
The Theme
finding and making peace
The Style
Habibi is written in short vignettes, mostly from Liyana's point of view, but sometimes in the form of essays written by her brother or some short sequences about her father and mother.
The Analysis
I really couldn't get into Habibi. It was very political and I try to avoid political things at all cost. And I also don't like very short chapters that don't necessarily flow together. Sure all the chapters come together to create this novel, but moving from an essay by Rafik to all the things Liyana did on her 29th day of school to what you can buy in Jerusalem to brushing your hair on the porch is just way too much for me.
The Cultural Markers
This book is all cultural markers, far too many to list individually. There are entire chapters dedicated things you can buy at a store in Jerusalem "You can buy gray Arabic notebooks .... You can buy miniature Christmas cards .... You can buy glass vases handblown in Hebron and olive-wood rosaries and creamy white mother-of-pearl star pins and shiny brocade from big bolts of cloth.... You can buy painted Palestine plates and roasted chickpeas and olive oil soap made in Nablus with a red camel on the package and saffron, that spice that costs a lot of money in American grocery stores, very cheaply .... You can buy sweets and treats, gooey, sticky, honey-dipped, date-stuffed fabulous Arabic desserts on giant round silver trays..." (120-122), descriptions of life in the West Bank for Liyana's distant family and how and where they live and many cultural traditions in the chapter To the Village. "When the cars climbed the steep hill into the village, children popped out of front doors to look at them, as if cars didn't drive up there very often." "Every house was made of golden or white chunky stone." "What Liyana would discover was this was positively everyone's favorite thing to do here - sit in a circle and talk talk talk." "A muezzin gave the last call to prayer of the day over a loudspeaker from the nearby mosque and all the relatives rose up in unison and turned their backs on Liyana's family. They unrolled small blue prayer rugs from a shelf, then knelt, stood, and knelt again, touching foreheads to the ground, saying their prayers in low voices." (50-56)
The Review
Marcia Mann (VOYA, February 1998 (Vol. 20, No. 6))
Liyanna Abboud is fourteen when her parents announce that the family is moving from St. Louis, the only home Liyanna has ever known, to Jerusalem, her father's birthplace. The Abbouds are welcomed by her father's sprawling extended Arab family in their West Bank village. New family, country, languages, and customs do not seem to faze Liyana nor her brother, Rafik, much. It is the lack of peace and the lack of empathy between the Jews and Arabs that are the main sources of angst for Liyanna and her family and friends. This story is told mainly from sensitive, introspective Liyanna's point of view, with a few disrupting shifts to those of her parents, Rafik, and her grandmother. This shifting viewpoint is a sign of the obtrusiveness of the author's agenda, as the question of just who has the "right" god is pondered. Although this heavy-handed approach might not be obvious to younger teens, a less didactic tone and more well-rounded characters would improve both the quality of the book and the reader's ability to enjoy it. However, glimpses of everyday life in a holy city and of how Arabs live in present-day Israel provide an interesting backdrop, and Liyana's vaguely mystical Arab grandmother is simply charming. Habibi is an Arabic word meaning "darling" and the oft-used term of endearment Liyanna and Rafik's parents use for their children.
The Connection
The only thing I really enjoyed from Habibi were the first lines of each chapter. Liyana kept a list of first lines of stories or movies she made up and would read over them to try to think of the rest of the story for them. I think a fun activity would be to have a group of kids write down a first line like Liyana, then pass them around and see if they could come up with the rest of the story for each line.
The main characters of Habibi are Liyana Abboud, her brother, Rafik, her father Kamal and her mother Susan. Other characters include Liyana's very large extended family.
The Plot
Liyana's family moves from St. Louis to Jerusalem, the land of her father. Liyana and her brother were born and raised in the United States and she definitely doesn't want to move, especially since she just got her first kiss from a cute boy named Jackson. After the family moves to Palestine, Liyana must get used to her huge family and the difficulties of the hatred between Arabs and Jews.
The Setting
Palestine
The Theme
finding and making peace
The Style
Habibi is written in short vignettes, mostly from Liyana's point of view, but sometimes in the form of essays written by her brother or some short sequences about her father and mother.
The Analysis
I really couldn't get into Habibi. It was very political and I try to avoid political things at all cost. And I also don't like very short chapters that don't necessarily flow together. Sure all the chapters come together to create this novel, but moving from an essay by Rafik to all the things Liyana did on her 29th day of school to what you can buy in Jerusalem to brushing your hair on the porch is just way too much for me.
The Cultural Markers
This book is all cultural markers, far too many to list individually. There are entire chapters dedicated things you can buy at a store in Jerusalem "You can buy gray Arabic notebooks .... You can buy miniature Christmas cards .... You can buy glass vases handblown in Hebron and olive-wood rosaries and creamy white mother-of-pearl star pins and shiny brocade from big bolts of cloth.... You can buy painted Palestine plates and roasted chickpeas and olive oil soap made in Nablus with a red camel on the package and saffron, that spice that costs a lot of money in American grocery stores, very cheaply .... You can buy sweets and treats, gooey, sticky, honey-dipped, date-stuffed fabulous Arabic desserts on giant round silver trays..." (120-122), descriptions of life in the West Bank for Liyana's distant family and how and where they live and many cultural traditions in the chapter To the Village. "When the cars climbed the steep hill into the village, children popped out of front doors to look at them, as if cars didn't drive up there very often." "Every house was made of golden or white chunky stone." "What Liyana would discover was this was positively everyone's favorite thing to do here - sit in a circle and talk talk talk." "A muezzin gave the last call to prayer of the day over a loudspeaker from the nearby mosque and all the relatives rose up in unison and turned their backs on Liyana's family. They unrolled small blue prayer rugs from a shelf, then knelt, stood, and knelt again, touching foreheads to the ground, saying their prayers in low voices." (50-56)
The Review
Marcia Mann (VOYA, February 1998 (Vol. 20, No. 6))
Liyanna Abboud is fourteen when her parents announce that the family is moving from St. Louis, the only home Liyanna has ever known, to Jerusalem, her father's birthplace. The Abbouds are welcomed by her father's sprawling extended Arab family in their West Bank village. New family, country, languages, and customs do not seem to faze Liyana nor her brother, Rafik, much. It is the lack of peace and the lack of empathy between the Jews and Arabs that are the main sources of angst for Liyanna and her family and friends. This story is told mainly from sensitive, introspective Liyanna's point of view, with a few disrupting shifts to those of her parents, Rafik, and her grandmother. This shifting viewpoint is a sign of the obtrusiveness of the author's agenda, as the question of just who has the "right" god is pondered. Although this heavy-handed approach might not be obvious to younger teens, a less didactic tone and more well-rounded characters would improve both the quality of the book and the reader's ability to enjoy it. However, glimpses of everyday life in a holy city and of how Arabs live in present-day Israel provide an interesting backdrop, and Liyana's vaguely mystical Arab grandmother is simply charming. Habibi is an Arabic word meaning "darling" and the oft-used term of endearment Liyanna and Rafik's parents use for their children.
The Connection
The only thing I really enjoyed from Habibi were the first lines of each chapter. Liyana kept a list of first lines of stories or movies she made up and would read over them to try to think of the rest of the story for them. I think a fun activity would be to have a group of kids write down a first line like Liyana, then pass them around and see if they could come up with the rest of the story for each line.
