Naomi Shihab NyeRecensioni

Independent Reading Level: 3-5
Awards and Honors: CCBC Choices Selection, 2021

Independent Reading Level: Grades 3-5
Awards: 2023 Michigan Notable Book, Lon Tinkle Award for Lifetime Achievement, and NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature

This poetry book isn't just one story made up of poems. It is a huge collection of poems from different poets from around the world. The themes to the poems are Words and Silences, Dreams and Dreamers, Families, This Earth and Sky in Which We Live, Losses, and Human Mysteries. I would use this book in a 4th or 5th grade classroom because of the complexity of some of the poems. It would be good to use for a more advanced lesson in poetry for older students but wouldn't be a good introduction lesson to poetry for younger students.

This seems like a pretty interesting book, I got about halfway through it and the poems that I did read were very well-written and made me think a lot. One of my favorite poems was definitely about a mother’s job. Overall very interesting read.

Summary: Within these verses, we meet a cast of characters, each a brushstroke in the vibrant canvas of life. From Fowzi, the domino maestro, to Ibtisam, aspiring to be a doctor, and Abu Mahmoud, the gardener with an intimate knowledge of eggplants and peaches. Nye's poetry dances through the lives of these individuals, offering glimpses of their dreams, resilience, and the enduring peace within. Whether it's a girl in a red sweater, Uncle Mohammed on the mountain, or the enigmatic Sitti Khadra, each poem weaves a tale that echoes with universal truths.

Pros:

This is a very, very slow moving book about a little boy who does not want to move away from his beloved home in Oman to his new home in Michigan. I liked the writing, but my children and i all could not finish it as a bedtime book, because nothing was going to happen.

All about families and the love shared between them regardless of how far apart they live.

Beautiful story.

This is a touching story that empowers readers, encouraging them to embrace their heritage and value and respect others cultures and heritages.

Independent Reading Level: 3-5
Awards and Honors: CCBC Choices Selection, 2021

It was okay, I'm trying to read more poetry since I don't read it often. I found her dads poems more interesting than I did hers. I also did this for my challenge, "Book from the library".

I really like Liyana and the way Shihab Nye portrays her family's move from Missouri to Jerusalem, but I can't figure out the meaning of the abrupt ending. Is it supposed to be hopeful? Or maybe it's supposed to represent that, regardless of the relationships between individuals in Israel/Palestine, the conflicts have a life of their own?

I read this with my son as part of Level 7 of the Build Your Library homeschool curriculum.

A young boy fears leaving his familiar home in Oman to travel across the world to the United States. While his mother and grandfather address his fears, he puts off packing his bag. Children facing a move to the unknown might find this book an understanding companion.

This is a charming novel about Aref, who has to leave his home in Oman and go to America for three years with his parents. This means leaving his grandfather, Sidi. We meet Aref trying to pack his suitcase for America and not wanting to engage. His parents are busy and it is Sidi who helps Aref say goodbye to the country he loves. As someone who knew nothing about Oman it is a fascinating journey to some of Aref's favourite places to see the sights of Oman. This is a book about family love, about love of your country and about how to say goodbye.½

This is the followup to "The Turtle of Oman," published 8 years ago. Aref and his parents are now living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, navigating their way around the city and getting to know the neighbors in their apartment building. As in Oman, Aref is enthusiastic and positive, always open to new experiences such as art camp, hiking, snow and writing poetry. Aref models how to embrace life to the fullest.

In a few days, Aref and his mother will join his father who has flown ahead to Michigan where the family will live for three years while Aref's parents attend graduate school. While still in Oman, Aref's mother urges him to begin packing. But Aref isn't ready to leave the country and home he's known all his life, He worries about being the new kid in Michigan. While his mother handles final details his grandfather Sidi takes him on adventures. Aref and Sidi go to the beach, take a road trip to camp in the desert, go for a sail with a fisherman, and sleep on the roof. All the while Aref cherishes the familiar and the time spent with his grandfather. The book is a love letter to home and family ties, enlivened by Aref's sprightly personality.

Goodreads Review:
An award-winning novel about identity, family, and friendship from renowned writer and editor Naomi Shihab Nye.

The day after Liyana got her first real kiss, her life changed forever. Not because of the kiss, but because it was the day her father announced that the family was moving from St. Louis all the way to Palestine. Though her father grew up there, Liyana knows very little about her family’s Arab heritage. Her grandmother and the rest of her relatives who live in the West Bank are strangers and speak a language she can’t understand. It isn’t until she meets Omer that her homesickness fades. But Omer is Jewish, and their friendship is silently forbidden in this land. How can they make their families understand? And how can Liyana ever learn to call this place home?

Goodreads Review:
A beautiful picture book about family and love across distance.

Mona’s grandmother, her Sitti, lives in a small Palestinian village on the other side of the earth. Once, Mona went to visit her.

The couldn’t speak each other’s language, so they made up their own. They learned about each other’s worlds, and they discovered each other’s secrets. Then it was time for Mona to go back home, back to the other side of the earth. But even though there were millions of miles and millions of people between them, they remained true neighbors forever.

It's lovely to join Aref on the next stage of his journey, and I think both this book and The Turtle of Oman stand alone beautifully as well, so readers can have a great experience with both or either without needing the companion book as background. This is a very gentle read about a 8 year old boy relocating from Muscat, Oman to Ann Arbor, Michigan for 3 years while his parents are in grad school. I'm not sure what it says that this book is so remarkable in its joyful acceptance -- presumably Aref's family is Muslim, and yet they experience no racism or microaggressions or unkindness at all on their adventure. They are welcomed with open arms both by their new apartment complex and their extremely culturally diverse school. Aref's new teacher is a paragon of inclusivity and his parents are quick to smooth out tense moments by modeling kindness and acceptance themselves. There's also a notable blind neighbor with many wonderful stories, and a return of Aref's marvelous grandfather, Sidi. Stands out as a story that celebrates all the little explorations and discoveries that children make in their day-to-day adventures.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss.

I learned more about Oman in this book than I ever expected, and found the characters charming. I kept expecting Aref to actually journey to the US, so I was surprised when that did not happen in the book, but it was a beautiful picture of a bittersweet situation.

This book tells the story of Aref Al-Imri, an elementary school student living in Oman. When his parents tell him that he will be moving from Oman to Ann Arbor, Michigan, he becomes very sad and refuses to pack his suitcase. His mother reaches out to his beloved grandfather for help. Together, Aref and his grandfather go on a series of adventures. At each stop, his grandfather finds a small stone to slip into Aref's suitcase, mementos of home.

I was given a free copy of this book through the Goodreads giveaway program. This does not in any way affect my opinion. I try to express only my most honest opinion in a spoiler-free way. Unfortunately, there is still always a risk of slight spoilers despite my best efforts. If you feel something in my review is a spoiler please let me know. Thank you.

Not going to lie. I feel really bad about giving and ARC book a 1-star, but honest is honest and this book was super bad to me. It was very boring but also I couldn't understand what most of the poems were about. This is a book that is supposed to be for children and I just didn't get it, so how are they suppose to. But then again this may just not be my thing at all and I should really learn to just avoid poetry from here on out.

It is so weird to feel (almost) nostalgic reading protest poems about the Bush administration.

Though the story wasn't as dynamic as I hoped it could be, it was a really nice tale of coping with imminent upheaval in a child's life. I particularly liked the grandfather as well as the overall atmosphere of the book. I need to visit Muscat sometime.

Audio note: it was --really weird-- to have the same reader for this as The Shining Girls. It took me a while to really separate this narrative from that of a gruesome serial killer tale.

Judging a book by its cover does you little good with this poetry collection, Words Under the Words, as the older woman on the cover is not the Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye, but her grandmother who died at 106 back in 1994. For years I would see the book and wonder just how old is that poet. Instead, this collection of her selected poetry (drawn from her three previous books) is vibrant and very much alive. She currently lives in Texas, travels the world, and creates poetry that shows well how we share a common humanity with her beautifully insightful poetry. William Stafford says the following about Nye, “She is a champion of the literature of encouragement and heart. Reading her work enhances life.”

I find her writing to be very accessible and easy to relate to. The following are some lines that spoke to me from some of her poems.

WHEN YOU LUNCH
"What makes a man with a gun seem bigger
than a man with almonds?"

STREETS
“A man leaves the world
and the streets he lived on
grow a little shorter.”

TWO COUNTRIES
“Skin remembers how long the years grow
when skin is not touched”

THE ART OF DISAPPEARING
“Walk around feeling like a leaf.
Know you could tumble any second.
Then decide what to do with your time.”

KINDNESS
“Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.”

THE ENDLESS INDIAN NIGHTS
“How the same Shah who commanded thousands
to build the Taj Mahal could later be jailed for life
by a single son is something to think about
during the endless Indian nights.”
[The Shah had the hands of the key masons cut off, so that they wouldn’t ever build anything to rival it.]

Naomi Shihab Nye is an important voice who crosses cultural divides both internationally and within the United States. For all that she brings to her poetry, it always remains clear, smart, and compassionate. She has now joined the group of my favorite poets that I’m always watching for anything new. If you haven’t read her, know that her writing is a reward waiting for you.½