Dr. Lora L. Tyson Education Curriculum Resource Center

On a trip to the Moroccan market town of Rissani, Ali becomes separated from his father during a sandstorm.

While Nora waits for the couscous her father is cooking to be finished, he tells her a story about his youth in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

In Mauritania, West Africa, an Arab girl who wants to wear a malafa, the veiled dress worn by her mother and older sister, learns that the garment represents beauty, mystery, tradition, belonging, and faith.

In simple rhyming text a young Muslim girl and her family guide the reader through the traditions and colors of Islam.

Hosni, a shepherd living in the desert, finally realizes his dream of traveling to the city where he spends his gold dinar in a way which changes his life forever.

Yasmin is visiting her grandmother, who lives in a country somewhere in the Middle East. On her first night, she's wakened by the muezzin at the nearby mosque calling the faithful to prayer, and Yasmin watches from her bed as her grandmother prepares to pray. A visit with Grandmother is always special, but this time it is even more so. Her grandmother makes Yasmin prayer clothes, buys her a prayer rug, and teaches her the five prayers that Muslims perform over the course of a day.

Nineteen poems about the Middle East and about being an Arab American living in the United States.

In this stirring anthology of sixty poems from the Middle East, honored anthologist Naomi Shihab Nye welcomes us to this lush, vivid world and beckons us to explore. Eloquent pieces from Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, and elsewhere open windows into the hearts and souls of people we usually meet only on the nightly news. What we see when we look through these windows is the love of family, friends, and for the Earth, the daily occurrences of life that touch us forever, the longing for a sense of place. What we learn is that beneath the veil of stereotypes, our human connections are stronger than our cultural differences.

Palestinian boy who faces surgery in an Israeli hospital, reveals the fear and the violence that have marked his life in the occupied West Bank.

In the Libyan City of Ghadames, Malika watches her merchant father depart on one of his caravan expeditions. She too yearns to travel to distant cities, and longs to learn to read like her younger brother. But nearly 12 years old, and soon to be of marriagable age, Malika knows that—like all Muslim women—she must be content with a more secluded, more limited life. Then one night a stranger enters her home . . . someone who disrupts the traditional order of things—and who affects Malika in unexpected ways.

Year Eleven at an exclusive prep school in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, would be tough enough, but it is further complicated for Amal when she decides to wear the hijab, the Muslim head scarf, full-time as a badge of her faith--without losing her identity or sense of style.

When fourteen-year-old Liyanne Abboud, her younger brother, and her parents move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the Palestinian village where her father was born, they face many changes and must deal with the tensions between Jews and Palestinians.

Living in the midst of civil war in Beirut, Lebanon, Zeina and her brother face an evening of apprehension when their parents do not return from a visit to the other side of the city.

A graphic memoir by young Syrian Muhammad Najem, who rose to international notoriety during the Syrian Civil War due to his on-the-ground reporting using social media.

Don Brown, the award-winning creator of The Great American Dust Bowl and Drowned City, depicts moments of both heartbreaking horror and hope in the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis. Shining a light on the stories of the survivors, The Unwanted is both a testament to the courage and resilience of the refugees and a call to action, serving as a timely reminder that this is not just a Syrian criss, but a human crisis.

As a child, Ibtisam Barakat wanted nothing more than to become a writer. This wasn't a common path for a girl living in the politically tumultuous Palestine of the 1970s, but she found inspiration in pen pal correspondence and from the adults who encouraged her dream. Still, the most surprising turn of events for Ibtisam happened when her mother decided that she, too, wanted to defy circumstances and seek an education. In this stand-alone, lyrically written memoir, Ibtisam picks up where Tasting the Sky left off, taking readers through her high school years.

An illustrated exploration into the lives of 13 influential Muslim women who have left a lasting impact on history, including religious, literary, humanitarian and political figures.

"When a war ends it does not go away," my mother says. "It hides inside us ... Just forget!" But I do not want to do what Mother says ... I want to remember. In this groundbreaking memoir set in Ramallah during the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War, Ibtisam Barakat captures what it is like to be a child whose world is shattered by war. With candor and courage, she stitches together memories of her childhood: fear and confusion as bombs explode near her home and she is separated from her family; the harshness of life as a Palestinian refugee; her unexpected joy when she discovers Alef, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet. This is the beginning of her passionate connection to words, and as language becomes her refuge, allowing her to piece together the fragments of her world, it becomes her true home. Transcending the particulars of politics, this illuminating and timely book provides a telling glimpse into a little-known culture that has become an increasingly important part of the puzzle of world peace.